Picturing the American Experience @ JL Modern

JULY 7 – SEPTEMBER 12, 2026

JL Modern Gallery is pleased to present Picturing the American Experience, an exhibition that reflects on America’s 250th anniversary through the enduring language of photography. Bringing together photographs made from the Civil War era to the present day, the exhibition traces the many ways artists have pictured the people, landscapes, cities, symbols, and cultural figures that have shaped the American imagination.

Spanning more than 160 years, the exhibition considers photography as both witness and storyteller. Early albumen photographs from the Civil War speak to the medium’s historic role in recording a country in conflict, while twentieth and twenty-first century works move through labor, architecture, landscape, politics, sport, celebrity, and popular culture. Seen together, the photographs suggest that America is not defined by a single image, but by a layered collection of places, personalities, ideals, contradictions, and shared memories.

The exhibition includes works by Timothy O’Sullivan, David Knox, Lewis Hine, Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Brett Weston, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank, Julius Shulman, Slim Aarons, Harry Benson, Elliott Erwitt, Neil Leifer, Flip Schulke, Lawrence Schiller, Stephen Wilkes, David Yarrow, and others.

A central feature of the exhibition is the salon wall, arranged as a visual passage across the United States. Moving from left to right, the installation travels from the West Coast toward the East Coast, creating a cross-country rhythm within the gallery. Images of California, New Mexico, Wyoming, Nebraska, Oklahoma, New York, Florida, and beyond come into conversation, allowing the wall to function almost as a photographic map of American imagery.

From battlefield records and Depression-era documentation to images of Hollywood, politics, architecture, athletics, and contemporary life, Picturing the American Experience celebrates photography’s unique ability to preserve history while shaping how history is remembered. Presented in honor of America’s 250th anniversary, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the enduring power of photography to frame, question, and celebrate the American story.