ALTERED STATES

In Joel Sternfeld’s exemplary book American Prospects, published in 1987, we saw images of America (including a lone basketball hoop standing in the desert in Arizona and a suburban neighborhood in the hills of Oregon) in the purest of lights and always rich in color—a style that he has been hailed for in the past three decades. First Pictures, a traveling exhibition, features Sternfeld’s photographs made between 1971 and 1980, a time in which color pictures were still competing with the more established industry of black-and-white images. In this series of work, a majority of which has never before been published or exhibited, Sternfeld captures the mood of our nation, from people on the streets of Chicago and New York to the shoppers at a mall in Jersey.

Tue., Jan. 31, 11 a.m.; Wed., Feb. 1, 11 a.m.; Thu., Feb. 2, 11 a.m.; Fri., Feb. 3, 11 a.m.; Sat., Feb. 4, 11 a.m., 2012