American Urban Life and the Influential Photographers Who Captured It

Jul 30, 2026

Three men dive into a river from a wooden pier, with a large bridge visible in the background. — Arthur Leipzig, *Divers, East River*, 1948 © Estate of Arthur Leipzig, Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

Starting from the early 1900s, a new exhibition documents the rapid expansion of urban life in the United States through the eyes of the most important photographers from the 20th century.

Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is hosting only its second-ever photography exhibition, and this one charts American cities as they shifted through decades of profound social, cultural, and economic change.

Titled Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography, the exhibition features photographers including Diane Arbus, Lewis Hine, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Mary Ellen Mark, Richard Avedon, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and many more. All of the works belong to the DNB Savings Bank Foundation collection.

Five children play on a city sidewalk in front of a building with graffiti and a "FOR RENT" sign. — Helen Levitt, *New York*, 1972 © Film Document LLC, courtesy Zander Galerie, Cologne/Paris

A shirtless construction worker wearing gloves and shorts hangs from the heavy metal hook and ball assembly of a large crane. — Lewis Hine, *Riding the Ball High up on Empire State*, c.1930.

A black-and-white portrait of a family of four sitting inside a car, with a man embracing a woman while two young children look out from the back seat. — Mary Ellen Mark, *The Damm Family in Their Car, Los Angeles, California*, 1987 © Mary Ellen Mark, Courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation

The exhibition opens in the early 1900s, a moment when American cities expanded rapidly through mass immigration, industrial growth, and new forms of labor — drawing photographers to sites of social and economic shift.

After the Wall Street Crash in 1929, photography took on an urgent social role, recording mass unemployment, poverty, and migration. The exhibition then turns to artists documenting the dramatic physical changes reshaping American cities in the mid‑20th century.

Moving into the 1960s and 1970s, the exhibition explores how photographers responded to a nation undergoing cultural and political transformation.

Portrait of a City concludes with a presentation of Bruce Davidson’s renowned Subway series, 1980–85, whose vivid, unflinching photographs capture the diversity, individuality, and raw immediacy of New York life, an enduring hallmark of the photographer’s career.

A man in a fedora and light-colored suit with a patterned tie stands in front of a red truck and a sign for a bar. — Saul Leiter, *Harlem*, 1960 © Saul Leiter Foundation

A young boy in a plaid shirt and hat stands against a graffiti-covered metal door, cast in the shadows of a fire escape. — Rebecca Lepkoff, *New York*, 1949 © Estate of Rebecca Lepkoff, Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

A woman wearing a dark cloche hat and a large fur collar stands on a city street with vintage cars and a staircase in the background. — Walker Evans, *42nd Street and Sixth Avenue*, 1929 © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography opens at Dulwich Picture Gallery July 28 – October 4, 2026. Presented in partnership with Savings Bank Foundation DNB and created in collaboration with Lillehammer Art Museum.