Upcoming Exhibits

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

The Historical Society of Cheshire County is pleased to become one of eight hosts for a state-wide exhibition entitled “New Hampshire Now: A Photographic Diary of Life in the Granite State.” The public is invited to an opening reception for the exhibit on Oct. 1, 2021 from 4pm-6pm.

“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 book (288 pages) with approximately 250 photographs, edited by Gary Samson and NH Society of Photographic Artist board members Dan Gingras and Michal Sterling with an introduction by noted NH author, Howard Mansfield, is to be designed by Peter Randall Publishing and printed by Puritan Press, Inc., on paper being supplied by NH’s Monadnock Paper Mill. The book will be available for purchase at the partner exhibiting organizations listed above, along with independent book stores.

It is planned that the books will be available in September 2021. Cover price will be $49.95.