Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project Exhibition

Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project will be on exhibit at Brick City Gallery March 4-April 19, 2016.

Brick City Gallery is located at 215 West Mill Street, Springfield. Gallery hours are M-F 11am-6pm, and Saturdays Noon-5pm

Exhibit will be open during Springfield First Friday Art Walk February 5, until 10pm. Galleries are closed national and university holidays. Closed Spring Break March 5-13.

"In 1971, the newly established U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched the DOCUMERICA Photography Project with the goal of documenting environmental troubles and triumphs across the country. Gifford Hampshire, the Project’s Director, envisioned a broad scope. Inspired by the Farm Security Administration's photography project of the 1930s and 40s, he encouraged his photographers to capture "the human connection" to the environment, from small towns in coal country to urban streetscapes. “Where you see people,” he told them, “there’s an environmental element to which they are connected.”

About 70 photographers, including Flip Schulke, John Corn, Danny Lyon, John H. White, and Lyntha Scott Eiler completed 115 separate assignments between 1972 and 1977. What emerged was a moving and textured portrait of America. Capturing a rapidly changing society with surprising resonances to the present, Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project presents a sampling of images culled from a trove of thousands.