Torpedo Factory Art Center #312. 105 N. Union Street
The Last Days of RFK Stadium presents a quiet yet resonant meditation on change, memory, and the passing of a civic landmark. On view at Multiple Exposures Gallery from January 27 through March 8, 2026, the exhibition features a series of black-and-white photographs by Washington, DC–based photographer Eric Johnson, who turns his lens toward the ongoing demolition of RFK Stadium. Long embedded in the city’s physical and cultural landscape, the stadium is shown here in transition, suspended between past significance and uncertain future.
Johnson’s photographs follow the stadium through successive stages of deconstruction, revealing steel, concrete, and voids where crowds once gathered. Stripped of spectacle, the structure becomes sculptural, its forms echoing both endurance and fragility. The images function as a visual record of a planned disappearance, capturing the measured pace of demolition as an act of erasure and transformation. In this sense, the work is as much about time as it is about architecture, reflecting on how cities continually remake themselves while leaving traces of what came before.
As a longtime resident of Capitol Hill, Johnson brings an intimate familiarity to the project. His repeated encounters with the stadium over decades inform a perspective rooted in proximity rather than nostalgia. The photographs acknowledge the slow decay that preceded demolition, while also embracing the deliberate choreography of dismantling as a subject in its own right. This methodical process, rendered in monochrome, emphasizes texture, contrast, and rhythm, allowing the viewer to linger on moments often overlooked in narratives of urban progress.
Eric Johnson’s background in science and his self-directed photographic education contribute to the clarity and restraint evident in this body of work. Influenced by a tradition of contemplative black-and-white photography, his images balance observation with reflection.
The Last Days of RFK Stadium stands as both farewell and document, offering a measured, thoughtful response to the end of a structure that once defined an era in Washington, DC’s shared experience.
Image:
Courtesy of the Artist. © Eric Johnson