ExhibitionsPhotography’s New Vision: Experiments in Seeing

Photography's New Vision: Experiments in Seeing

Opening June 2025

Walker Evans (American, 1903-1975), The Bridge, 1929, gelatin silver print, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Arnold H. Crane, 73.72 F. © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Named by the influential German artist and teacher László Moholy-Nagy, the “New Vision” comprised an expansive variety of photographic exploration that took place in Europe, America, and beyond in the 1920s and 1930s. The movement was characterized by its departure from traditional photographic methods. New Vision photographers foregrounded experimental techniques, including photograms, photomontages, and light studies, and made photographs that favored extreme angles and unusual viewpoints.

This exhibition, uniting more than one hundred works from the High’s robust photography collection, will trace the impact of the New Vision movement from its origins in the 1920s to today. Photographs from that era by Ilse Bing, Alexander Rodchenko, Imogen Cunningham, and Moholy-Nagy will be complemented by a multitude of works by modern and contemporary artists such as Barbara Kasten, Jerry Uelsmann, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Abelardo Morell to demonstrate the long-standing impact of the movement on subsequent generations.

Left. Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883-1976), Agave Design I, ca. 1920, gelatin silver print, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from Georgia-Pacific Corporation, 1987.138. © The Imogen Cunningham Trust.

Right. V. Elizabeth Turk (American, born 1945), Calaeno, 2018, Van Dyke print, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from Lucinda W. Bunnen for the Bunnen Collection, 2019.182. © Elizabeth Turk.

Cunningham And Turk

Left. Florence Henri (Swiss, born United States, 1893-1982), Composition, 1932, printed 1972, gelatin silver print, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Dr. Joe B. Massey in honor of Maria L. Kelly, 2024.50.

Right. Barbara Kasten (American, born 1936), Construct NYC, 1984, dye destruction print, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Lucinda W. Bunnen for the Bunnen Collection, 2012.611. © Barbara Kasten.

Henri And Kasten

Left. Alexander Rodchenko (Russian, 1891-1956), Sbor na demonstratsia (Gathering for a Demonstration), 1928, gelatin silver print, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Joseph and Yolandra Alexander, Moscow/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2012.423. © Estate of Alexander Rodchenko/RAO, Moscow/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Right. Lucas Foglia (American, born 1983), Esme Swimming, Parkroyal on Pickering, Singapore, 2014, pigmented inkjet print, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Irene Zhou, 2020.152. ©Lucas Foglia.

Rodchenko (2012.423) And Foglia (2020.152)

This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor 

Premier Exhibition Series Supporters

Mr. Joseph H. Boland, Jr.
The Fay S. and W. Barrett Howell Family Foundation

Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters

Robin and Hilton Howell

Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporters

Loomis Charitable Foundation
Mrs. Harriet H. Warren

Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters 

Farideh and Al Azadi
Mary and Neil Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
Megan and Garrett Langley
Margot and Danny McCaul
Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller
Belinda Stanley-Majors and Dwayne Majors

Generous support is also provided by  

Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund, and USI Insurance Services.