Images sequence on exhibit at Wellin Museum of Art

The Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY presents “Storytelling: Photographers Making Meaning | Works from the Wellin Museum’s Collection,” on view September 12, 2026, by June 12, 2027. The exhibition explores tasks by twentieth- and twenty-first century American photographers the place that means is made by the presentation of photographs in sequence, at occasions juxtaposed with textual content, leading to narratives that talk a specific message. The photographers depict a spread of topics, from moments of political import, to disappearing American landscapes, with the artists typically capturing the communities round them.

Featured tasks embrace Eve Arnold’s and Gordon Parks’s photojournalism of Malcolm X and the Black Muslim motion, Milton Rogovin’s shifting social documentary portraits of the residents of Buffalo’s Lower West Side neighborhood, and extra lighthearted work reminiscent of Bill Owens’ humorous tackle suburban life, and Mike Mandel’s playful set of buying and selling playing cards, the place (typically well-known) photographers take the place of baseball gamers.

“Storytelling” consists of our bodies of labor by eleven photographers: Eve Arnold, Rhona Bitner, Danny Lyon, Mike Mandel, Wright Morris, Bill Owens, Gordon Parks, Milton Rogovin, Keisha Scarville, Lorna Simpson, and Garry Winogrand, primarily drawn from the Wellin Museum’s intensive holdings of images.

The photographers featured within the exhibition deploy completely different inventive methods of their use of photographs and textual content, to speak particular visions of the world. While a single picture can inform a narrative, the cumulative presentation of images, with or with out textual content, typically permits the technology of extra layered, nuanced, and highly effective concepts. One picture could talk an idea that’s destabilized by the image that follows. Similarly, a textual content could reinforce—or undermine—the obvious message of a picture, or sequence of photographs.

Some footage on show have been created particularly for publication in magazines or photobooks, typically introduced alongside a textual content authored by the photographer, or one other author, whose voice considerably impacts a viewer’s understanding of the visible materials. Moreover, selections referring to presentation, reminiscent of scale, and graphic design, can affect the character of the message transmitted.

“’Storytelling’ engages with many current socio-political themes, particularly in relation to American life, and should provide abundant material for faculty and students, while also engaging our wider community,” Elizabeth Shannon, PhD, Wellin Museum Collections Curator, stated. “While most of us are not professional photographers, many of us regularly create carousels of images, and combine image and text, for social media posts. Visitors can bring their experience, and critical eye, to the works in ‘Storytelling,’ and to the strategies utilized by these photographers, and consider how different types of meaning are constructed and communicated—from the serious to the absurd.”

Bodies of Work

The exhibition consists of pictures from Eve Arnold’s Malcolm X mission; Rhona Bitner’s Listen mission; Danny Lyon’s The Destruction of Lower Manhattan sequence; Mike Mandel’s Baseball-Photographer Trading Cards; pictures by Wright Morris that appeared in his publications reminiscent of The Inhabitants (1946) and God’s Country and My People (1968); footage from Bill Owens’ Suburbia mission; photographs from Gordon Parks’ 1963 Life magazine photo-essay on Black Muslims; a number of works from Milton Rogovin’s multi-year Lower West Side Revisited sequence; Lorna Simpson’s Details portfolio; pictures from Garry Winogrand’s Women are Beautiful sequence; and a brand new set up by Keisha Scarville.

Programming

Friday, September 11, 2026, 1:00 p.m.

Join exhibition curator Elizabeth Shannon, PhD, who will lead a digital preview of the exhibition on Facebook Live. Visit the Wellin’s Facebook web page to affix.

Saturday, September 12, 2026, 4:00–6:00 p.m. Opening Reception for “Storytelling” on the Wellin Museum.

About the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art

Embodying the liberal arts expertise, the Wellin is a educating museum on the campus of Hamilton College in Central New York. The museum invitations guests to find the humanities and type surprising connections by groundbreaking exhibitions, a globally consultant educating assortment, and devoted group programming.

Through its exhibitions, public applications, and academic outreach, the Wellin Museum sparks dialogues throughout disciplines, conjures up experimentation, and fosters inventive inquiry.