Where We Live was the unexpected highlight of my recent trip out West, to attend Photo LA. I wasn’t even aware of the exhibition and my Friday evening excursion to the Getty was wedged into a very busy few days. Wandering the galleries with two friends, I coaxed them into the exhibition for what was meant to be a quick peek on our way out of the museum. What a fortuitous detour! Suddenly we were in the midst of an amazing, if somewhat specific, history of American photography. I couldn’t contain my excitement as I wandered from room to room. I’ve never before had an opportunity to review such a broad swath of significant works in person.

Even the biggest names in the exhibition—Robert Adams, William Eggleston and Joel Sternfeld among them—might not be household names beyond the photography community, but the photos in the exhibition are familiar to most Americans. This is a show that captures America: its barbershops, its lawnchairs, gardens and storefront churches; its well-traveled roads and everything that lines them; gas stations and diners and neon and barns, most of them creeping towards decrepitude; its vistas and landscapes, from cities on out to its loneliest stretches of desert. And Americans as well: individuals, families whole and fractured, our homes and our cars (of course, our cars!).

I was caught off guard by what an emotional experience it was for me. Part of the excitement was seeing the prints in person, often big and always beautiful.

…

Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection. Numerous contributing photographers. Text by Kenneth A. Breisch, Judith Keller and Colin Westerbeck, with an essay by Bruce Wagner. Edited by John Harris. Getty Publications, Los Angeles, 2006. Designed by Jim Drobka. Flexibind with photo-illustrated paper over boards. 227 pp., 170 four-color plates, 11¼ × 11 $49.95

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