CAPTURING THE WEST: TIMOTHY O'SULLIVAN - Speed Art Museum

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CAPTURING THE WEST: TIMOTHY O'SULLIVAN, PIONEER PHOTOGRAPHER

This exhibition highlights photographs from Timothy O’Sullivan’s landmark series, U.S. Geographical Survey West of the 100th Meridian. Hailed by Ansel Adams as one of the most important photographers of the nineteenth century and touted as a precursor to Modernist photographers, O’Sullivan was one of the first to document the western landscape. In 1871, he joined a government-sponsored expedition lead by Lieutenant George Wheeler to survey and document the territories west of the 100th meridian, including portions of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. In these photographs, O’Sullivan creates carefully constructed images that convey the ruggedness of the terrain, the vast scale of the western territories, and the natural grandeur of the American landscape.

As the first photographer to venture into the western territories, O’Sullivan established a new visual vocabulary for landscape photography. This exhibition will examine O’Sullivan’s photographic vision and his influence on later photographers. It will also explore the impact of American westward expansion on indigenous tribes encountered by O’Sullivan and the ways the landscape has changed in the past 150 years. These extraordinary photographs are from the Speed’s collection, and the portfolio will be shown in its entirety for the first time since undergoing recent conservation.

For more information, please call 502.634.2700 or visit speedmuseum.org/exhibitions