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The Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s new exhibition, “Faces in the Crowd: Street Photography,” attempts to put a contemporary spin on the tradition of street photography through an examination of the omnipresence of cameras in ordinary life. The exhibit explores geographically diverse urban landscapes over five decades through the lens of 25 artists. The result is a show that offers a unique take on privacy, collaboration, and cross-cultural exchange, but ultimately struggles to leave visitors with a clear or cohesive takeaway.
The central theme of the show is the overwhelming threat of surveillance in public life. This topic is introduced immediately in Michael Wolf’s “Parisian Street View #28.” Wolf created the digital pigment print by pointing his camera at computer Google Street View images. The work is a strong example of how the practice of street photography has been altered by technological innovations.
Alex Prager’s “Sheryl,” meanwhile, highlights the active role photographers can take in the production process. Prager didn’t happen upon a woman in a car, rather, the scene was elaborately constructed. Prager made creative decisions such as hair, makeup and costuming to communicate a narrative focus. “Sheryl” immediately stands out in the realm of street photography: The subject rides in a brightly colored car that recalls frames designed by the film directors Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. Prager’s approach to stylized photography is a testament to the artist’s role in the staging of the photograph.
Installation is one of the most successful parts of the exhibition. Each grouping contains a powerful dialogue that relates to one of the major themes of the show. For example, the interplay between Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s “Untitled (711879B)” and Alexey Tirarenko’s “Untitled” is particularly fascinating. Both silver prints have a chilling blur across the majority of the work’s surface. In Ishimoto’s work, the blur covers half of the image, leaving a singular woman’s face visible to the viewer. Tirarenko’s print has a soft blur across every face, erasing the entire crowd masterfully. The pairing of works highlights the show’s interest in “faces,” even as the exhibition struggles to maintain that focus throughout.
Though the exhibition excels at telling a cohesive story with small groups of works, the narrative of the show as a whole could be clearer. The curatorial choice to place “Parisian Street View #28” — one of the introductory works of the exhibition — on the opposite side of the entrance to the Herb Ritts Gallery makes it difficult to establish an initial orientation. The exhibition’s themes of surveillance, artistic intervention, anonymity in the crowd, and geographic contrast each resonate within specific parts of the exhibit. However, new sub-themes are introduced as visitors view new works, making it difficult to keep track of overarching threads. Visitors aren’t left with the same cohesive story outlined in the introductory text; instead they are left with what feels like fragments of a story about street photography.
Still, through its labeling, the exhibition provides helpful context about artistic intention, including whether or not subjects were aware they were being photographed. Additionally, each wall label contains information about each artist’s creative process, whether about Prager who takes a very direct role or Ishmito who merges contemporary techniques with older Japanese photography traditions.
“Faces in the Crowd” is an ambitious exhibition that seeks to depict multiple places, techniques, and themes with a few works. It seeks to reframe street photography in a surprising way, yet its layout and structure prevent a needed sense of cohesion. While the show presents compelling moments of artistic dialogue and cross-cultural exchange, these moments are harder to see when one takes a step back.
“Faces in the Crowd” is on view at the MFA Boston until July 13, 2026.
