KEVIN MOORE

Big Tent, the inaugural exhibition at FotoFocus Center, reflects the spirit of the nation and the ideals of FotoFocus, each founded on principles of democracy, creativity, experimentation, and clear-eyed realism. Featuring a diverse ensemble of artists from FotoFocus’ past and future, Big Tent examines the ever-changing nature of American public life within a building created specifically for personal reflection and collective exchange.

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America is a “big tent,” a place where a broad range of perspectives coexist under one roof. Once a literal tent where grassroots organizing occurred spontaneously across all corners of the nation, the big tent now ascends to metaphor—an impromptu caucus contributing to democracy.

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Big Tent is inspired in part by a poem by Amanda Gorman, “In This Place (An American Lyric),” written during her time as National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. Following Gorman’s poem, the exhibition moves through various cities across the United States, where readers encounter book “collections burned and reborn twice,” Confederate statues and protestors “like a meadow of resistance,” the “sleeping giant of Lake Michigan,” cows and floodwaters, and “black and brown students,” culminating in a celebration of the diversity of the American populace.

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Artists: Francis Alÿs, Marco Anelli, Tina Barney, Gary Beeber, Dawoud Bey, Sheila Pree Bright, Elliott Jerome Brown, Jr., Chivas Clem, Andrew Dadson, Moyra Davey, John Divola, Elena Dorfman, Alyse Emdur, Mitch Epstein, Roe Ethridge, Asa Featherstone IV, Lola Flash, Stanley Forman, Robert Frank, Jill Freedman, Rico Gatson, Katy Grannan, Melvin Grier, Tina Gutierrez, Sky Hopinka, Madeleine Hordinski, Samuel James, Stacy Kranitz, Justine Kurland, An-My Lê, Builder Levy, Danny Lyon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elaine Mayes, Jackie Nickerson, Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs, Catherine Opie, Trevor Paglen, Gordon Parks, Judith Joy Ross, RaMell Ross, Ruddy Roye, Tommaso Sacconi, Collier Schorr, Allan Sekula, Fazal Sheikh, Accra Shepp, David Benjamin Sherry, Cauleen Smith, Tabitha Soren, Alec Soth, Paul Strand, Ian Strange, Larry Sultan, Stephanie Syjuco, Michael Wilson