In the Library: Photobooks and American Energy

In the Library: Photobooks and American Energy brings together books and photographs to explore how artists document and reflect on the energy industry’s influence on the American landscape and its people. Drawing from the National Gallery of Art Library collections, the exhibition focuses on the photobook as a unique medium that combines images, text, printed elements, and binding to tell complex stories, offering a different experience than viewing individual images on a wall or a social media feed. Visitors can examine a wide-ranging selection of photobooks by contemporary photographers and then handle additional examples in the reading room.

Venue: National Gallery of Art, East Building, East Building Ground Level, Library Atrium, 6th and Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20565.

When: May 26 through August 22, 2026.

Hours: Open weekdays from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except federal holidays. The museum is open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. with admission always free.

Tickets: Free admission; no ticket required.

Curated by: Yuri Long, special collections librarian at the National Gallery of Art.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Note: The exhibition is presented in the Library and is part of the museum’s ongoing series of library exhibitions. An image credit from the exhibition materials identifies Shelby Lee Adams’s *From the Heads of the Hollers* (first edition, London: GOST Books, 2023) as a featured work, gifted anonymously to the National Gallery of Art Library.