Current Exhibit

New Hampshire NOW:  A Photographic Diary of Life in the Granite State

Open through April 16, 2022

The Historical Society of Cheshire County is one of eight host sites for a state-wide exhibition entitled “New Hampshire Now: A Photographic Diary of Life in the Granite State.”   “NH NOW” is a two-year project to photographically record life in New Hampshire.

Nearly 50 photographers traveled throughout the state between 2018 and 2020, making thousands of images that collectively create a twenty-first-century portrait of the people, places, culture, and events in New Hampshire. This project documents contemporary life in our state, in much the same way that photography projects of the past have done, such as Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange during the Great Depression and Lewis Hines when he visited the mills of Manchester in the early 1900s.

Fifty photographs will be on view at the Historical Society of Cheshire County including many Monadnock region photographs as well as works from other regions of New Hampshire.  The project director is seventh NH Artist Laureate, Gary Samson.

Eight separate exhibitions of photographs from the New Hampshire Now collection will open simultaneously at partnering venues around the state on October 1, 2021.

The locations are: 

  • New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord
  • Manchester Historic Association
  • Museum of the White Mountains, Plymouth State University
  • Historical Society of Cheshire County, Keene
  • Portsmouth Historical Society/Discover Portsmouth
  • Colby-Sawyer College, New London
  • Belknap Mill, Laconia
  • Tillotson Center, Colebrook

Get the NH NOW book!

In addition to the exhibit, a NH Now book, with approximately 250 photographs, is available in our Museum Store.  Edited by Gary Samson and NH Society of Photographic Artist board members Dan Gingras and Michal Sterling, this 288-page hardcover book includes an introduction by noted NH author, Howard Mansfield and was designed by Peter Randall Publishing.  Keeping with the NH-made theme, the book was printed by Puritan Press, Inc., on paper supplied by NH’s Monadnock Paper Mill. 

Visit the Museum Store or shop online to pick up your copy. Click here to purchase