The J Paul Getty Museum presents Where We Live: American Photographs from the Berman Collection

On October 24, a new exhibition will mark the opening of the new and expanded Center for Photographs at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Running through February 25, 2007, "Where We Live" will feature 170 works of color photography by 24 contemporary artists.

To mirror fine art photography’s huge role in the Getty's collection and the Los Angeles contemporary art scene, the space has increased to 7,000 square feet, a staggering change from the previous 1,700.

“Where We Live” draws from nearly 500 examples of postwar American photography donated by (Nancy and Bruce Berman) to the Museum over the past eight years. The collection recognizes that the ordinary markers of life—barns, churches, billboards, and Main Streets of even the smallest towns—may one day be historic artifacts. The photographs that the Bermans have donated to the Getty form an archive of late 20th-century American life.

Among the photographers represented in the exhibition are John Divola, Jim Dow, Doug Dubois, William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Karen Halverson, Alex Harris, Sheron Rupp, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, George Tice, and the team of Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee. Working mostly in color and in a range of styles, the photographers' diverse backgrounds in sociology, anthropology, art, and psychology inform their efforts to document the country from the 1960s onwards.

In addition, the Public Faces/Private Spaces: Recent Acquisitions will be on display until February 4, 2007. The emphasis is on images made from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s.