Second Look: Danny Ransohoff’s Cityscapes Through New Eyes

This exhibition pairs 13 cityscapes taken by Daniel J. (Danny) Ransohoff, an acclaimed mid-20th-century social documentarian who captured evolving views of Cincinnati from the 1950s through the ’70s, with current images of the same locations taken by University of Cincinnati students. By pairing images of the same location taken 50–70 years apart, the exhibition covers not a long distance, but a long span of time. Ransohoff’s photographs were taken during a period of urban decline and shifting neighborhood demographics. His images reveal families, children, storefronts, stoops, and streetscapes that speak to both the resilience and the challenges of the community at that time. In the present day, University of Cincinnati public history undergraduate students revisit Ransohoff’s sites, photographing the same locations from his archive. 

By taking a “second look” at these sites, students find a new understanding of Cincinnati’s past and present. Their images reveal what has endured and what has changed, whether through restoration, abandonment, demolition, or new use. Viewed side by side, the paired photographs highlight the seeming permanence of brick and stone alongside the inevitability of change in architecture, culture, and community life. Student-generated text helps fill in the historical narrative. Through these images, curator Anne Delano Steinert and her students remind audiences that cities are living archives. What remains, what disappears, and what emerges all tell stories about the people whose lives and legacies continue to shape Cincinnati across generations.

Artists: Austin Carr, Avery Carter, Matt Enneking, Connor Herman, Daniel Ransohoff