Rightnow, there are a lot of photography-based exhibits in the gallerys around town as well as right here in the Smithsonian Museums. Here's a quick run-down of some of what you can see:
Natural History Museum:
- The Beautiful Time: Photography by Sammy Baloji- January 7, 2012 - January 6, 2013 - Congolese photographer and videographer Sammy Baloji explores the “beautiful time” when the labor of hardworking Congolese built a flourishing copper mining industry in what is now the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- The Evolving Universe - October 21, 2011 - July 7, 2013- Through full-color images from high-powered terrestrial and orbiting telescopes, take a mind-bending journey from present-day Earth to the far reaches of space and the distant past — back to the beginning of the universe.
- More Than Meets the Eye - July 23, 2011 - November 4, 2012 - This photography exhibition features over 80 images to demonstrate how museum scientists use their super-powered vision to observe, document, and analyze the natural world and global cultures.
- X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out - February 4, 2012 - August 5, 2012 - Striking x-radiographs of the museum's world-leading collection of fish specimens are used to explore how scientists understand evolutionary development by studying fish skeletons, fin spines, teeth, and other physical structures. Created using the latest digital x-ray technology
American Art Museum:
- Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage - January 20, 2012 - May 20, 2012 - Unlike Annie Leibovitz’s staged and carefully lit portraits made on assignment for magazines and advertising clients, the photographs on view were taken simply because Leibovitz was moved by the subject.
American History Museum:
- Gift of the Artist: Photographers as Donors - November 18, 2011 - February 29, 2012 - The Archives Center features items from the museum's archival collection that document America's history and its diverse cultures and features works by 15 contemporary documentary photographers who have donated their own works to the Archive Center. Selected by curator David Haberstich, the images reveal the diversity of themes, subjects, styles, and techniques found in the Archives Center's photographic collection.
Portrait Gallery:
- The Black List: Photographs by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders - October 28, 2011 - April 22, 2012 - This photographic exhibition features portraits of prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines, and backgrounds hopeing to redefine the meaning of being “blacklisted” and includes 50 prominent African Americans providing insight on the struggles, triumphs, and joys of life in the United States. These portraits are both pictorial and verbal, representing some of the most dynamic and inspiring personalities in the fields of politics, music, business, civil activism, literature, the arts, and athletics.
- Alexander Gardner - October 10, 2014 - March 1, 2015- Perhaps the most progressive photographer of the Civil War era; he was influential not only in advancing photographic portraiture beyond traditional compositional conventions, but also in realizing photography’s power as a documentary tool. His most famous work is the “cracked-plate” portrait of President Abraham Lincoln taken 150 years ago on February 5, 1865.
National Zoo:
- Jessie Cohen: An Eye for Animals - October 27, 2011 - December 31, 2012 - This exhibition features the photography of long-time Zoo photographer Jessie Cohen and inaugurates the Jessie Cohen Photography Gallery in the Zoo's Visitor Center.
Corcoran Gallery of Art:
- Tim Hetherington: Sleeping Soldiers - photographs taken by the late photographer while embedded with the Second Platoon of Battle Company of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade while defending Restrepo, a post located in the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan. A video piece accompanies this exhibit that blends footage of daytime conflict with still images of sleeping soldiers.
- Shadows of History: Photographs of the Civil War from the Collection of Julia J. Norrell - the advent of photography changed the face of war and brought images straight from the battlefield. This collection brings together some of the earliest images of battle from the first war to ever be documented using the new medium.
Goethe-Institut:
- gute aussichten: new german photography 2011/2012 - the eighth annual German competition for graduate photography students, come to Washington on the exhibition’s worldwide tour.and includes seven winners of the competition.
If you can't make it to the exhibits in person, explore photography virtually using the Smithsonian Photography Initiative, which features online exhibitions, an events calendar, and an image search from the Smithsonian Institution's nineteen museums and galleries, nine research centers, and the National Zoo.
Also, don't forget about the photography courses offered by the Smithsonian Resident Associates' Studio Arts department. If you're looking for a springtime class, a new session starts up in April.
-Angela