The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC, has received a gift of 1,261 photographs by Mitch Epstein, giving the museum the largest institutional collection of his work. Donated by Epstein and his wife, Susan Bell, the works span his five-decade career.
The acquisition includes sets and portfolios from Epstein’s major series, from early street photographs and images from road trips across the United States to more recent projects such as A Language of New York and Family Business. Also included are large-scale prints from recent series like American Power, which examines the landscapes of power generation in the US, and Property Rights, which documents sites of protest and resistance nationwide. Other series represented in the gift, including New York Arbor, Rocks and Clouds and Old Growth, document the presence of the natural world within urban environments.
Mitch Epstein, Amos Coal Power Plant, Raymond City, West Virginia 2004, 2004, printed 2025 National Gallery of Art, Gift of Mitch Epstein and Susan Bell. © Mitch Epstein
Epstein was born in Massachusetts in 1952 and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and later at Cooper Union in New York. He is now based between Massachusetts and New York City and considered among the most important US photographers of his generation. Over the past five decades he has developed a wide-ranging practice that spans from documentary observation to more contemplative, large-format work.
His influence also stems in part from his early adoption of color photography at a time when it was still gaining acceptance in a fine art photography community that prioritised black-and-white imagery. Encouraged by Garry Winogrand and inspired by William Eggleston, he developed a precise, technically rigorous approach to composition and printmaking that expanded the expressive possibilities of photography.
Mitch Epstein, American Elm, Central Park, New York 2011, 2011 National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Gift of Mitch Epstein and Susan Bell. © Mitch Epstein
Epstein’s work has been widely exhibited, with solo shows at institutions including Les Rencontres d’Arles in France (in 2022), the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Texas (2021-22), Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna (2017) and the Cleveland Museum of Art (1994). He is the recipient of many major honours and accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (in 2002) and the Prix Pictet (in 2011).
“Mitch Epstein’s photography offers a sweeping and visually compelling chronicle of the United States and beyond from the 1970s through the present,” Kaywin Feldman, the NGA’s director, said in a statement. “By bringing the full breadth of his career into the collection and establishing the National Gallery of Art as the leading institutional home for Epstein’s work, we will ensure that future generations will be able to study, experience, and reflect upon this important body of work.”
Several of the 11 large-scale photographs by Epstein that are included in the gift will be featured in NGA exhibitions this year.
