The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its Department of Photographs with the exhibition “Convergences: Selected Photographs from the Permanent Collection.” Since 1984, the Getty has seen its collection, which includes both contemporary and historical photographs, grow substantially. The exhibition is inspired by a book of essays by author Lawrence Weschler titled “Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences.” In his writings, Weschler explores visual associations between a variety of objects, events, and phenomena. He describes them as “uncanny moments of convergence, bizarre associations, eerie rhymes, whispered recollections.”
“Convergences” features a series of 14 groupings of photographs that reveals points of intersection between recently acquired works by contemporary artists and historical photographs in the museum’s collection. The groupings encourage viewers to create connections between images that were made at different times and with different aesthetic intentions, encouraging conversations between new and old as well as the curatorial process as a whole. Together, the groupings reveal the rich diversity of approaches to photography, while establishing threads of continuity throughout the medium’s history.
