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Overview
America, as a place and an idea, has occupied artist Mitch Epstein for the past five decades. With the first photographs he made in 1969, at sixteen-years-old, Epstein began confronting the cultural psychology of the United States. Although he started working in an era defined by the Vietnam war, civil rights, rock and roll, and free love, Epstein responded hardily to each radically different era that would follow—from Reaganomics to surveillance after 9/11 to the current climate crisis and resurgence of white supremacy. More than a single era or issue, it is the living organism of American culture that engages Epstein; no matter how much the country changes, his photographs describe something mysteriously and persistently American.
Born in 1952 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Epstein lives and works in New York City. His work was most recently the subject of the major survey American Nature at Gallerie d’Italia Torino, Italy (2024). Other notable exhibitions include Mitch Epstein: In India. 1978-1989 at Abbaye de Montmajour Les Rencontres d’Arles, France (2022); Mitch Epstein: Property Rights at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas (2020); and Mitch Epstein: In Time at Museum Helmond, The Netherlands (2019-20). He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Pictet Photography Prize (2010); the Berlin Prize in Arts and Letters (2008); and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2003).
Epstein’s photographs are included in the collections of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. His seventeen publications including Silver + Chrome (2022), Recreation (2022 and 2005), Sunshine Hotel (2019), Rocks and Clouds (2018); New York Arbor (2013); American Power (2009); Family Business (2003), which won the 2004 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award.
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Exhibitions
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American Power
American Power examines energy usage and excess in the United States. Mitch Epstein captured these photographs on one to two-week forays near or at an energy source—what he calls “energy tourism.” The images implicate, but do not always directly reference, fossil fuel, hydro-power, nuclear and wind power as they are used across the United States. This body of work confronts a complex amalgam of social and aesthetic dynamics, posing various inquiries into the politics of Big Brother, human intimacy, and the value of producing large-scale photographs.
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