This winter, exhibitions across Europe, the UK and USA are showcasing influential documentarians, past and present. This list offers a snapshot of what’s on, from iconic 20th-century work by Lee Miller and Ruth Orkin to more expansive definitions of the genre by contemporary figures like Coco Fusco, Hajar Benjida and Naima Green. Together, these shows demonstrate just how wide-ranging documentary practice has become – stretching from wartime photojournalism to performance-driven self-portraiture, politically charged interventions and deeply collaborative portrayals of community. They reveal a field that is constantly evolving, responsive to social change and alive with new approaches to truth-telling.
Naima Green: Instead, I spin fantasies
The International Center of Photography, New York | Until 12 January
Naima Green (b. 1990) blurs the boundary between documentary and performance in Instead, I Spin Fantasies – an exhibition dedicated to the concept of pregnancy. Throughout the body of work, Green wears a prosthetic baby bump in constructed self-portraits.. Elsewhere, viewers will see intimate portraits of Green’s friends and loved ones, including biological and chosen family. There are also landscapes and still lifes. The result is an expansive vision of parenthood, one which shatters expectations, challenges conventions and shows the multifarious nature of family in 2025. Beyond the personal, Instead, I Spin Fantasies reflects on the larger societal contexts and forces that shape experiences of pregnancy in America. There are references to the medical industrial complex, family planning interventions and, more generally, to the ways that identities and life choices are conditioned by institutional forces.
Lee Miller
Tate Britain, London | Until 15 February
Lee Miller (1907-1977) is one of the best known documentarians of the 20th century, and no list would be complete without her. This winter, Tate Britain presents the largest retrospective of her photography ever staged. It spans the full breadth of Miller’s multifaceted practice, from her participation in French surrealism to war reportage. It traces her journey, which began with modelling in New York, to working behind the lens in Paris, then becoming a leading fashion photographer for British Vogue during wartime. Miller went on to become one of the few accredited female war correspondents, documenting not only women’s contributions on the home front, but also harrowing scenes from the front line, as well as devastation and deprivation across Europe. Here, Tate reveals how her innovative and fearless approach pushed the boundaries of photography, producing some of the most iconic images of the modern era.
Hajar Benjida: Atlanta Made Us Famous
Foam Amsterdam | Until 25 March
Atlanta Made Us Famous is the first solo museum exhibition by rising star Hajar Benjida (b. 1995), a Moroccan-Dutch photographer who was selected as a Foam Talent in 2021. Now, she returns to the Amsterdam museum with a series that focuses on Magic City, one of Atlanta’s most influential strip clubs and a cultural epicentre of hip-hop. The women she photographs are not merely presented as performers, but as entrepreneurs, mothers and caretakers: strong and autonomous figures whose labour extends beyond the stage. Built on years of trust and collaboration, Benjida’s work offers an intimate glimpse into a world rarely seen. Benjida seliberately avoids the spectacle of the dance floor, instead turning her lens to the unseen spaces of preparation, backstage rituals and the everyday. Her message: the foundation of this industry lies not on stage, but in the decisions, work and lives of the women themselves.
Ruth Orkin: Women on the Move
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C | 12 December – 29 March
This exhibition is a window into women’s lives in the mid-20th century. The National Museum of Women in the Arts dives into its collection to showcase 21 photographs by Ruth Orkin (1921-1985), whose wide-ranging body of work spans portraits of Hollywood celebrities as well as images taken in classrooms, homes, parks and urban neighbourhoods. Early in her career, Orkin – a budding filmmaker – was barred from joining the cinematographers’ union, which excluded women. Yet her narrative vision endured, emerging in photographs that compress whole stories into a single frame. A key example is the famous American Girl In Italy (1951), published in Cosmopolitan as part of a photo essay about the experiences of women traveling solo throughout post-war Europe. It shows painter Jinx Allen (Ninalee Craig), who accompanied Orkin on the trip, being stared at by several men as she walks down Florence street.
Coco Fusco: Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island
El Museo del Barrio, New York | Until 11 January
Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist and writer Coco Fusco (b. 1960) is recognised for her incisive explorations of the dynamics of politics and power. Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island looks back over three decades, and explores the central concerns that drive her practice: immigration; military power and surveillance; post-revolutionary Cuban history; and the lasting legacies of colonialism. Fusco is described as one of “the most provocative voices in contemporary art” by El Museo del Barrio Executive Director Patrick Charpenel. “Her work challenges conventions, sparks vital conversations, and continues to resonate powerfully at a time of profound social and political reckoning.” Key projects include Everyone Here is a New Yorker (2025) and Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West (1992/2025), created in counterpoint to the 500th anniversary of the so-called “discovery” of the Americas.
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. Naima Green, Half on a baby (DonChristian), (2025). © Naima Green.
2. Lee Miller, Portrait of Space, Al Bulwayeb near Siwa, 1937. Lee Miller Archives. © Lee Miller Archives, England 2025. All rights reserved. leemiller.co.uk.
3. Hajar Benjida, Goddess, (2025).
4. Ruth Orkin, American Girl in Italy, 1951 (printed 1980 by Ruth Orkin Estate); Gelatin silver print, 23 x 28 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Promised gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in honor of NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling.
5. Coco Fusco, A Room of One’s Own: Women and Power in the New America, (2006-2008). Performance documentation. Courtesy the artist and Mendes Wood DM.
