MIAMI, FLA.- The Wolfsonian–Florida International University shines the headlights on wanderlust for Summer 2017 with two complementary photography displays delving into the possibilities of facing the open road with camera in hand. In a “then-and-now” balance, North and South: Berenice Abbott’s U.S. Route 1—featuring black-and-white images chronicling her 1954 journey along the American East Coast—will be in dialogue with The Long Road to Now: Digital Photos Inspired by Berenice Abbott’s Road Trip, co-curated with Instagram forum #JJ Community. The 50 images culled from Abbott’s prolific series, only a small slice of her thousands of shots captured along the highway and today held in the collection of Syracuse University, set the thematic and technical stage for the 15 contemporary creatives who likewise merge an artistic eye with a documentarian impulse in The Long Road to Now. Their winning Instagrams, hand-picked by The Wolfsonian and #JJ from over 7,000 submissions, bring Abbott’s vision into the 21st century—most in full color. Both projects will remain on view through October 8, 2017.

Expanding upon Syracuse’s exhibition in Miami Beach are materials exclusive to The Wolfsonian’s presentation, which will be the first major photography show at 1001 Washington Avenue in over a decade. The added works include a rare loan from Abbott’s estate and related selections from the museum’s world-renowned collection of 180,000 modern-age objects.

From Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida
Celebrated for her no-frills approach to photography, Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) preferred to thoughtfully frame and focus each shot on site over manipulating negatives back in the studio. Photographs from her road trip up and down the East Coast in 1954, armed with a portable Rolleiflex camera, present the character of mid-1950s American life without staging or editorializing—faithfully recording what she saw as the country evolved, without idealization or nostalgia, criticism or commentary. Many of the images are of working people and reflect the regional diversity of the Eastern seaboard, from scenes of peach packing, dancing, and alligator wrestling to candid portraits of potato and tobacco farmers.

New to North and South are:

• A key loan from Abbott’s estate of one of the artist’s Rolleiflex cameras;

• Works delineating Abbott’s career, representing her earlier photo series of the Parisian avant-garde (1920s); the evolving urban landscape of New York City, commissioned by the WPA (1930s); and scientific photography (1940s–'60s);

• 1940s and '50s car-culture postcards of Miami tourist motels, motor courts, and gas stations—all from a private collection—paired with car advertisements held by the museum’s library;

• Two books published by Abbott on photography techniques; and

• Three digital supplements, including an interactive map juxtaposing her photographs with views of how those same sites appear today.

“I think almost more than any other work she did, this (Route 1) really got to the heart of what she was interested in illustrating, which was the sense of a changing landscape through photographs that were truly objective in their presentation,” said David Prince, associate director & curator of collections at SUArt Galleries, who curated North and South. “Construction of the country’s interstate highway system was underway and Abbott wanted to document the historic character of the East Coast while it survived.”

Added Whitney Richardson, Wolfsonian assistant curator and organizer of the Miami presentation of North and South, “These photographs are incredibly revealing when it comes to the layers of history that exist in a particular place at a particular moment. We’re thrilled to bring Berenice Abbott’s work to a Miami audience, in a city where Route 1 still plays a major role in shaping day-to-day life.”

Around the World in 15 Instagrams
Taking cues from Abbott’s work, The Wolfsonian and Instagram forum #JJ Community challenged social-media followers to submit photos centered on three themes prevalent in Abbott’s 1954 series: Road Trip, Signage, and Classic. The Long Road to Now: Digital Photos Inspired by Berenice Abbott’s Road Trip brings together the 15 winning entries from this call, each an eye-popping portrayal immortalizing daily life. Like their mid-century muse, they demonstrate a keen sense of composition, style, and artfulness, and all bring her legacy into the 21st century with a spirit of adventurous exploration.

“Visual storytelling has become democratized through smartphones and new digital tools,” said #JJ Community CEO Kevin Kuster. “Because of this, we’re now experiencing a renaissance in photography and witnessing an incredible standard of quality in our images unlike ever before. Any one of us can now open doors to our inner artistic voice in unprecedented ways—no longer limited by technology, but only by our imagination.”

The roster of winning Instagrammers embodies the global reach of #JJ’s online photography community of over 600,000 followers united under the mission “create to connect.” Artists based in Lisbon, Paris, Yekaterinburg, Milan, Chicago, New York, and beyond—professional and amateur photographers alike—responded with over 7,000 submissions. From nighttime car window snapshots, mirror reflections, and views of international landmarks to poignant candids and epic landscapes, the 15 finalists’ works have left their mark on social media’s visual dialogue about the world we live in today.

The winning Instagrammers’ handles are: @_soulkitchen_ (Milan, Italy); @franko68 (Chicago, Illinois); @julneighbour (Paris, France); @matsimonet (Paris, France); @rambler7s (Kyoto, Japan); @kutusos (Havana, Cuba); @loggerhead55 (Sacramento, California); @nazaret (Tarragona, Spain); @wandering.blonde (Kerrville, Texas); @ch808_shoots (Sarasota, Florida); @carla_lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal); @psych_photographer (Maysville, Kentucky); @shadow1188 (Tampa, Florida); @svetameek (Yekaterinburg, Russia); and @tobyb_nyc (New York, New York).

The Long Road to Now is #JJ Community’s second museum partnership, having co-organized #MobilePhotoNow with the Columbus Museum of Art in 2015.