Image via HS Insider
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“The American dream, for a large part, is shaped by photography,” said Taco Dibbits, the director of the Rijksmuseum located in the Netherlands. “American photography,” a special exhibition taking place in this well-known museum, is retracing US history through more than 200 photographs showing how the American dream for certain has been regarded as a nightmare for others.
The American dream is typically described as a national myth that has been built throughout decades. As it has been spread in politics, it has been seen for so long as a promise for liberty, this idea of a new world freed from ancient oppression. This has been the driving force for many artists whose art is the product of conscious or unconscious discourse on the American dream.
This exhibition is therefore a route starting with colorful American magazine covers from the 1950s and 1960s presenting a wealthy and jubilant country made of brand-new cars, cosmetics and many different products to amuse consumers. However, on the other side of the gallery, pictures by Robert Frank—a swiss-american photographer—were hung up. These black and white pictures show a disenchanted America made of the true faces of the American people, sometimes miserable and desperate. This twofold entrance of the exhibition announces a paradox—how America was shown and how America actually was.
The spotlight was put on portraits of Keokuk at the Rijksmuseum, a chief of the Sac and Fox Nation. There were also portraits of an unknown man from Harlem and homegirls in San Francisco. People became subjects in these photographs and the social interests and motives prevail over the artistic views. Stepping back to the history of American photography, first portraits were the daguerreotype—pictures of individuals—a luxury that few could afford. It was a distinctive object that enabled wealthy people to freeze their realities in time. Nonetheless, the exhibition tends to reverse the stereotype by putting forward people who were for so long invisible: minorities, people suffering with substance abuse, or lower classes.
Photos via Rijksmuseum
Landscapes are depicted as well as faces. Landscapes from the Far West, from industrialized America, and from extreme urban areas as well as natural environments. These contrasting views tend to show how America has evolved through decades, how Americans have settled and have made the country their own.
Finally there are utilitarian pictures; products from a country looking forward, looking for progress and wealth. These include identity pictures, press images, advertisements and CDs covers. This is the testimony of mass consumption : even photography has become a product to sell.
One common trait: capitalism and its ravages. This previously unseen exhibition has shaped the vision of an unseen america. Behind the Rich are those who suffered from this enrichment. For some critics, it eventually depicts how capitalism devoured its people and its territory: the example that struck me was that of Indigenous people. In the picture of Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, the caption reads “This is not a commercial, this is my homeland.” The lands are an object of commercialisation through a capitalist vision of tourism, but behind the landscapes, there are people deprived from their origins.
Image via Rijksmuseum
“Unforgettable images of the beauty and brutality of a nation” summarizes the Rijkmuseum. The fascinating exhibition gives a lot to explore and to question. How could these pictures show the dream of a nation full of opportunities and how could they retrace the sacrifices these opportunities implied. Art and techniques are desacralised to focus on social and cultural realities, but aren’t these realities what really is America today? Art has always been a vehicle of politics. Could we really trust images or is this exhibition another way to question the political reality which classical art has always shown us?
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This article was edited by Abigail D’Angelo
Ayden Suber 
Lara Ejzak 
Daniel Canney