Zoe Strauss Exhibits At Philadelphia Museum Of Art

Ten Years Of Photography Beneath I-95

Zoe Strauss has made a career of capturing and documenting poignant yet troubling portraits of contemporary America.  She celebrates ten years as a photographer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), with a mid-career retrospective exhibition titled Zoe Strauss: Ten Years. This presentation is a visual portrayal of Strauss’ desire to create an epic narrative that reflects the beauty and struggle of everyday life. Zoe Strauss: Ten Years will be on view until April 22.

Zoe Strauss: Ten Years is the first critical assessment of the acclaimed photographer’s ten-year project exhibiting her photographs annually in a space beneath a section of Interstate-95 (I-95) in South Philadelphia. Strauss’s subjects are broad but her primary focus is on working-class experience, including the most disenfranchised people and places.  Zoe Strauss: Ten Years will offer one version of that narrative, presenting approximately one hundred and fifty of her photographs, along with slideshows displaying more of her imagery, and installations on billboards throughout Philadelphia that will extend the exhibition beyond the PMA.

Between 2001 and 2010, Strauss affixed prints to columns in an area roughly the size of a football field, providing visitors with a map keyed to a list of photograph titles. Prints of the exhibited images were available for sale for five dollars, with Strauss stationed at a nearby table to sign them. These installations animated the site with art, commerce, and social interaction, transforming it into a vibrant public space. Zoe Strauss: Ten Years will examine how, for Strauss, the opposite settings of the abandoned urban zone under the highway and the galleries of the PMA complement each other. Her engagement with both places is deep and she highly values the museum as a place for civic discourse, just as she strove to make the space under I-95 a place for social interaction.

Untrained as a photographer or artist, Strauss nevertheless founded the Philadelphia Public Art Project in 1995 with the objective of exhibiting art in nontraditional venues. She turned to the camera in 2000 as the most direct instrument to represent her chosen subjects. In 2002 she received her first Leeway award. In 2006, Strauss participated in the Whitney Biennial. In 2008 she published her first book, America.

In addition to the exhibition at the PMA, 54 billboards featuring photographs by Strauss are on exhibit publicly throughout Philadelphia. The Billboard Project is loosely structured around the themes of Homer’s Odyssey, presenting an epic story about journey and homecoming. On display are photographs from Strauss’s travels around the country including Grand Isle Beach in the Gulf of Mexico; Venice Beach, California; Rosedale, Mississippi; and Fairbanks, Alaska. The Billboard Project is designed for both residents and visitors, encouraging each to construct their own narrative and journey around these images. In addition, the billboards will also touch upon the subjects of migration and immigration, fortune, hospitality, conflict and resolution, decision-making and mystery.

For more information on the exhibit, visit philamuseum.org.