American photography

Josh picks five favorite photos from legendary photographer Robert Frank.

The Stephen Shore exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art casts a wide net, including the anomalous periods when Shore worked abroad, but its main focus is his many photographs of hyper-quotidian America, our stalest shades of red, white, and blue. These quiet and straightforward pictures—of food, buildings, cars, and toilets—show that Shore is best understood as a photographer uninterested in photographing what is agreed to be worthy of capture.

"I wanted to see what was unexpected and try to make photographs of the disappearing, fragmentary moments of everyday life."

“This photograph could be the opening line of a joke: ‘So, a girl rides up to a bar on a horse...’” says Joel Meyerowitz. “But really what happened was that I was there getting some ice cream for my kids when this girl rode up to the window on her horse and ordered two lobster rolls and some fries; as soon as I saw the girl, the horse, and the ice cream sign, I saw the photograph.”

Because John Malkovich can do anything.

The six photographers in the Black Chicago exhibition cover the period from 1940 to the present. Their photos are a shocking and highly artistic testament to life in the city

Photographer Beth Yarnelle Edwards sees the suburbs as the 'physical embodiment of the American Dream.' Her images reveal aspiration and stability, but also the more mundane aspects of a suburban existence.

From heartbreak to joy and everything in between, each of these iconic photos tell a truly American story.

"American Flag Display on American Home on front porch landscape " Download this high-resolution, royalty-free stock photo by Raymond Forbes LLC from Stocksy United.

From 1972-1979, a 30-something Stephen Shore traversed the United States by road, stopping along the way to set up his tripod and 8x10 camera. When he got tired over long drives, he recited Shakespeare to himself, often adopting the role of Hamlet as he made his way from one in-between place—a parking lot, a crossroads—to the next.