Return to Nature

Color photograph of a dense forest with a light skin-toned girl with bare feet climbing a tree at center. Below her to the right is another light skinned girl sitting against the trunk of a tree. Other figures are scattered throughout the forest in the background.
Aug 01 to Dec 23, 2020

Inspired by our collective urge to return outside after a period of hibernation, this focus exhibition presents 20 photographs by 11 artists from the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). In the museum’s intimately scaled Teresa Lozano Long Gallery, large contemporary prints of lush landscapes mingle with exquisite vintage black-and-white flower studies. Other photographs on view depict figures traversing beaches, deserts, rainforests, and the coastlines of rivers and lakes. The installation demonstrates how artists passionately explore nature’s scientific phenomena and visual complexity, as well as its role as the wellspring for all human experience.

Women actively participated in the development of photography from the time of its introduction in 1839. In the medium’s earliest years, women advanced botanical illustration in particular. Until the 1970s, their contributions were largely overlooked, and very few museums acquired their photographs in substantial numbers. Photography is one of the largest and fastest-growing segments of NMWA’s collection; more than half of the artworks featured in Return to Nature are being exhibited for the first time.

Close-up photograph shows a trumpet-shaped flower against a dark black background. The flower's striated long neck erupts in a profusion of purple and white petals that dominate the composition.

Amy Lamb, Purple Datura, 2015; Digital pigment print of photograph, 34 x 34 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of the Artist and Steven Scott Gallery, Baltimore; © 2015 Amy Lamb, all rights reserved.

Exhibition Gallery

A black and white photograph of a light-skinned woman wearing a one-piece white bathing suit and white swim cap. She is lying down on sand with her hands behind her head. There are footprints in the sand below her, and the image is framed by large rocks.
Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Model in Rubber Bathing Suit, California, 1940; Gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 in.; NMWA, Gift of Helen Cumming Ziegler; © 2023 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
A black and white photograph of a Datura flower. The flower’s bloom is in profile, and the high contrast image, set against a dark background, reveals each fold, ripple, and vein in the flower’s stem and petals.
Imogen Cunningham, Datura, ca. 1930; Gelatin silver print, 29 x 23 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Gift of Betsy Karel); © 2023 Imogen Cunningham Trust
Close-up photograph shows a trumpet-shaped flower against a dark black background. The flower's striated long neck erupts in a profusion of purple and white petals that dominate the composition.
Amy Lamb, Purple Datura, 2015; Digital pigment print of photograph, 34 x 34 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of the Artist and Steven Scott Gallery, Baltimore; © 2015 Amy Lamb, all rights reserved.
Color photograph of a dense forest with a light skin-toned girl with bare feet climbing a tree at center. Below her to the right is another light skinned girl sitting against the trunk of a tree. Other figures are scattered throughout the forest in the background.
Justine Kurland, Jungle Gym, 2001; Chromogenic color print, 30 x 40 in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection; © Justine Kurland, Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
Tall photograph of a beach near sunset. The sky fades into the beach, which fades into darkness for the bottom third of the photograph. The focal point is a single tree in shadow with a figure kneeling below its branches.
Mwangi Hutter, For the Last Tree, 2012; Chromogenic print, 39 ¼ x 26 ⅜ in.; NMWA, Gift of Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, D.C.; © Mwangi Hutter
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The Artist,

Louise Dahl-Wolfe

As a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar, Louise Dahl-Wolfe introduced a witty naturalism to the staid conventions of fashion photography and helped pioneer the use of color film.
Black-and-white photo of a light-skinned adult woman leaning out from behind a large studio camera. Wearing glasses, a white turban and a stripped top, she smiles with an expression of humor. A large spotlight sits behind her and she holds a piece of large format film.

The Artist,

Rineke Dijkstra

Rineke Dijkstra’s crisply detailed photographs of adolescent sunbathers, bull fighters, new mothers, and military personnel highlight the subjects’ physical and psychic states.
A light-skinned adult woman wearing a dark jacket against a dark background. Her hands are tucked into pockets. Her long dark brown hair falls across her forehead, partially obscuring her long eyebrows.

The Artist,

Ingrid Mwangi (Mwangi Hutter)

Throughout her career, performance and video artist Ingrid Mwangi has explored issues of “hyphenated” identity.
A medium-dark-skinned adult woman with short dark curly hair, wearing a white crochet top, stands with hands clasped in front of her. On the wall behind her are two large color photographs of medium-skinned adult women.

The Artist,

Justine Kurland

Justine Kurland is best known for photographs of adolescent girls, nude pregnant women and mothers, and commune inhabitants arrayed in spectacular, lush landscapes.
A light-skinned adult womand with bobbed brown hair stands against a white wall wearing a sleeveless dress with a colorful geometric print. On the wall behind her hangs a color photograph of a light-skinned person working outside under the hood of an old red car.

The Artist,

Amy Lamb

Molecular biologist-turned-photographer Amy Lamb marries her scientific eye and artistic passion to produce exquisite, large-scale “portraits” of plants.
A light-skinned, adult woman with short, blonde hair grins in front of one of her photographs depicting a blossoming, purple datura flower against a black background.