ST. LOUIS, Jan. 21, 2025—The camera and the car revolutionized modern life in America and have been intertwined since the very beginning. A spring 2025 photography exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum displays work by artists shaped mainly by car travel in the 20th and early 21st centuries, exploring how the automobile and the road mediated what the photographers discovered.
“In Search of America: Photography and the Road Trip” features more than 100 works, with roughly half coming from SLAM’s collection. The free exhibition opens May 2 at SLAM and remains on view through Oct. 19 in Gallery 235 and Sidney S. and Sadie M. Cohen Gallery 234.
Depression-era documentary work, artifacts of roadside culture and fascination with the Southwest desert all figure prominently. Significant photographers featured include Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander. More recent work by Catherine Opie, Paul Graham and Kelli Connell demonstrates the ongoing relevance and interest in the road trip. Vernacular snapshots and photobooks—important extensions of how journeys were documented and shared—will also be on view.
The exhibition also includes a significant display of work by Emil Otto Hoppé, whose 1926 travels generated the most comprehensive illustrated book on the American landscape to date. Hoppé took in all four corners of the country and much in between—from gritty Eastern steel factories to the Southwestern desert landscapes—visiting more than 120 cities and scenic areas. This is the first museum presentation of works from Hoppé’s series to be mounted since its completion almost a century ago, providing a remarkable portrait of the United States at a pivotal point in its history.
“In Search of America” is curated by Eric Lutz, associate curator of prints, drawings, and photographs. It will feature a series of related programming including film and music.
CONTACT: Molly Morris, 314.655.5250, molly.morris@slam.org
Emil Otto Hoppé, English (born Germany), 1878–1972; “Cowboy, Painted Desert, Arizona,” 1926, printed c.1950; gelatin silver print; image: 5 1/2 x 8 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Phillip Prodger and April Swieconek 32:2018
Press images
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Lee Friedlander, American, born 1934; “Albuquerque, New Mexico,” 1972, printed 1978; gelatin silver print; image: 7 3/8 x 11 1/8 inches sheet: 11 x 14 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Martin Schweig Memorial Fund for Photography 799:1983; © Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Luhring Augustine, New York
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Also on view in St. Louis in 2025
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
Like Water, March 7-August 10, 2025
Make the River Present, March 7-August 10, 2025Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
Seeds: Containers of a World to Come, February 21-July 28, 2025
Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection, September 12-January 5, 2026Pulitzer Arts Foundation
Veronica Ryan: Unruly Objects, March 7–July 27, 2025
Jennie C. Jones: A Line When Broken Begins Again, September 5, 2025-February 1, 2026
Other Octaves: Curated by Jennie C. Jones, September 5, 2025-February 1, 2026
