Documenting Kentucky: Three Photographic Surveys

April 24, 2025—November 9, 2025

The Frazier History Museum hosted a temporary exhibition, Documenting Kentucky: Three Photographic Surveys. This exhibition offered a compelling visual journey through the Bluegrass State as captured by three landmark photography projects undertaken since 1935.

Documenting Kentucky explored how photographers have worked to preserve the identity, diversity, and evolving landscapes of Kentucky, from the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky to the rolling farmland of the west. The exhibition featured work from the current Kentucky Documentary Photography Project (2015–24), the Depression-era Farm Security Administration efforts (1935–43), and the original Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (1975–77).

Through almost 150 photographs, visitors gained new insight into the everyday lives of Kentuckians—how they lived, worked, celebrated, and endured across decades of cultural and economic change.

“The stories these images tell—some stark, some joyful, all deeply human—remind us of the power of photography to record and reflect a place and its people,” Frazier Senior Curator of Exhibitions Amanda Briede said. “This exhibition is not just about Kentucky’s past. It’s also a mirror held up to its present and a conversation about its future.”

Highlights included:

Rarely seen images from FSA photographers like Marion Post Wolcott and Ben Shahn
Intimate portraits and candid scenes from the current Kentucky Documentary Photography Project (2015–24)
Photographs from the original Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (1975–77)

The exhibition was on view through November 9, 2025, and included a series of public programs, including a collaboration with Louisville’s Photo Biennial.