Peter van Agtmael: Look at the USA
On View: April 14 through June 26, 2022
Bronx Documentary Center Annex
364 E. 151st St, Bronx, NY 10455
Look at the USA, an exhibition of the work of noted documentary photographer Peter van Agtmael, will focus on the fault lines of the post-9/11 United States, at home and abroad.
This exhibition was curated by Cynthia Rivera, Peter van Agtmael and Michael Kamber with additional support from Paul Stremple and Bonnie Briant.
Exhibitions at the Bronx Documentary Center are made possible by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Foundation support is provided by the Clif Family Foundation, Chris Hondros Fund, Four Friends Foundation, Ford Foundation, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, Lawrence Foundation, Pierre and Tania Matisse Foundation, Peck Foundation, Scherman Foundation, and the Van Agtmael Fund. Special thanks to our corporate sponsors Adobe, BronxCare Health System, Fujifilm, and Montefiore Health System.
The 128 photographs span the period 2006-2021; they examine the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their domestic consequences–wounded soldiers and the families of the fallen.
This work also explores crucial social and political issues such as nationalism, militarism, refugees, race and class, as well as the tumultuous events that led up to the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Texts accompanying each photograph address van Agtmael’s complex motivations as he took these photographs, while providing broader political and historical context.
The title of the show comes from a library book van Agtmael found at Baghdad College, a prestigious high school for boys founded by American Jesuits in Iraq. The school was “an emblem of a time when the United States was known in the Middle East not for military action, but for culture and education.”
Peter van Agtmael (b. 1981) graduated from Yale University in 2003 with a degree in History. Following graduation, he spent a year in China on the Charles P. Howland fellowship photographing the effects of the Three Gorges Dam. He became a freelance photographer at the end of 2004. Since the beginning of 2006, he has documented the consequences of America’s Wars, at home and abroad. A monograph of the work, ‘2nd Tour Hope I Don’t Die’ was published in 2009. In 2008, he helped organize the exhibition and book Battlespace, a retrospective of unseen work from 22 photographers covering Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2011 van Agtmael received the ICP Infinity Award for Young Photographer. In 2012 he was a recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Fund award.