Bike trip, USA, 1939: go for a ride with the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation photo exhibition

A bicycle, a camera and a fabulous journey across the United States: that's the unusual story told by the new exhibition at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. From September 19, 2023 to January 14, 2024, the art house will honor Ruth Orkin with the exhibition Bike trip, USA, 1939.

Barely 17, the young Ruth Orkin decided to leave her family home in Los Angeles and travel across the country to the East Coast of the United States. A long journey through America's largest cities, immortalized by the young artist in 350 exceptional photographs. This solitary journey from West to East was a veritable epic for the teenager, at a time when women's independence, security and means of transport were not the same.

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Ruth Orkin announced her plans to visit the New York World's Fair. She took bus after bus, car after car, train after train to reach her goal. At each stop, the young artist hops on her bike to explore the cities along the way. Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Philadelphia... In these streets, Ruth Orkin finds new worlds, fascinating landscapes. Using her camera, she captures the streets, the scenes of life and the people she meets. She also has a lot of fun with her self-portraits, and her bicycle, which she stages in surprising and amusing shots.

Thephoto exhibition at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson tells the story of this extraordinary adventure, through some forty photographs, press articles and period documents, as well as the manuscript Ruth Orkin wrote about her journey. Let yourself be drawn into this fabulous story, and come and admire the photographer's photographs in the Bike trip, USA, 1939 exhibition.