An exhibition of 80 works exploring the relationship with the natural world, centred on Joel Sternfeld's influential series 'American Prospects' alongside works by Carleton Watkins, Ansel Adams and others.
American Prospects and Landscape Photography, 1839 to Today opened at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on October 3, 2026, and runs through April 11, 2027. It's a wide-reaching look at how we've photographed the American landscape over nearly two centuries, with 80 works on the walls.
At the center is Joel Sternfeld's American Prospects, a series he shot between 1978 and 1983 and published in 1987. He worked with an 8x10-inch camera, which gives the images a clarity and detail that's hard to miss. The series captures 1980s America with a mix of humor and compassion, balancing natural beauty and wide-open spaces against the signs of environmental destruction, industrial decline, and suburban sprawl. At the time, it set a new standard for color photography.
Sternfeld's work is surrounded by a selection of landscape photographers from across the years, which places his vision in a broader historical context. You'll see names from the early days like Carleton Watkins and William Henry Jackson, the mid-century masters Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Robert Frank, and later figures like William Eggleston, Robert Adams, Emmet Gowin, David Maisel, Mitch Epstein, Lauren Greenfield, Victoria Sambunaris, Barbara Bosworth, and David Taylor. Together, they trace the changing relationship we've had with the natural world.
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The Sternfeld photographs were given to the museum by Peggy and Bill Lyons, and this is the first time they've been on view at the Nelson-Atkins. The exhibition is organized by the museum with support from the Hall Family Foundation. It's in the Free Gallery, so there's no admission fee. You can find it at 4525 Oak St, Kansas City, MO 64111, through April 11, 2027.
