Group show
Cruel Radiance: Photography, 1940s–1960s
22 Nov 2021 — 1 May 2022 at Metropolitan Museum of Art
· New York City
Cruel Radiance: Photography, 1940s–1960s brings together a compelling selection of photographs made between the 1940s and 1960s, a period of profound social upheaval, political tension, and cultural transformation. Drawn from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's holdings, the exhibition examines how photographers of the era wielded the camera as both a documentary tool and an expressive medium.
The title — borrowed from James Agee and Walker Evans's landmark 1941 book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men — evokes the unsentimental, penetrating quality of the best photography of the period. Works on view range across portraiture, street photography, photojournalism, and experimental image-making, revealing the breadth of approaches that flourished during these two decisive decades.
The exhibition was on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, during 2021–2022.
The title — borrowed from James Agee and Walker Evans's landmark 1941 book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men — evokes the unsentimental, penetrating quality of the best photography of the period. Works on view range across portraiture, street photography, photojournalism, and experimental image-making, revealing the breadth of approaches that flourished during these two decisive decades.
The exhibition was on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, during 2021–2022.
About the artist
Walker Evans
1903–1975 · social realism
Walker Evans was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Evans published his first photos at the age of 27. Much of Evans' New Deal work uses…
About the artist →About the venue
Metropolitan Museum of Art
· New York City
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the fourth-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5,727,258 visitors in fiscal year 2025, it was the most-visited museum in…
