This exhibition brings together for the first time the work of seven international artists working in the field of photography—YTO BARRADA (Morocco); RINEKE DIJKSTRA (The Netherlands); CUNY JANSEN (The Netherlands); AN-MY LÊ (born in Vietnam, currently living in the US); CLARE RICHARDSON (UK); JOHN RIDDY (UK); and JOEL STERNFELD (US). It combines work by emerging artists with work by those who are more internationally renowned. Works by these artists have been exhibited previously at such major museums as the Victoria and Albert, London; the Stedelijk, Amsterdam; Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Jeu de Paume, Paris; Sprengel Museum, Hannover; and Museum Folkwang Essen. For several, this will be their premiere museum exhibition in the US.

Their images are very personal diaries of a place, exploring the evolving relationship between people and nature, rural and urban, old and new, timelessness and change, natural and artificial. It is the balance between these contrasts that lends these bodies of work a highly contemplative feel. The format of the exhibition will constitute a series of narratives or extended essays by each artist, which resonate and connect with one another. 

Yto Barrada examines the static and transitory life of Tangier, Morocco, where developers are transforming pastures, marketplaces, formerly protected forests, beaches and historic buildings. Rineke Dijkstra presents portraits of schoolchildren and adolescents in city parks in Europe, China, and the US, positioning her subjects in almost Eden-like surroundings. Cuny Janssen travels to Amami Oshima, Japan, to produce beautifully printed portraits of young people seen against a pristine landscape. An-My Lê explores a quarry along the Hudson River in New York where trap rock has been mined for over a century. Clare Richardson is drawn to an area of Transylvania through her interest in farming and the mythic potential of unspoiled nature. John Riddy juxtaposes the natural beauty of Mount Fuji against the indications of an urbanized modern Japanese town. Joel Sternfeld's photographs are grand and epic in scope, recording the Connecticut River landscape at different times of the year and depicting the painterly and expressive changes of the seasons.