Astounding shots of a wounded civil war major and a flogged Black man sit amid amateur snaps and propaganda in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum – showcasing the nation’s unrivalled mastery of the camera

As the land of the free and the home of the brave reverberates to cries of Make America Great Again, what is often overlooked is the complicated notion of the word “again”. As highlighted in American Photography, an expansive, sometimes beautiful but often shocking survey at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam over the past two centuries, what has been great for some has been downright awful for others.

“America and photography are entwined. You can’t see the two apart from each other,” says Mattie Boom, curator of photographs at the Rijksmuseum, who has spent two decades helping build the American collection. It now amounts to around 7,000 photographs – all by American photographers of American subjects – and 1,500 American photobooks and magazines. The current exhibition is the first major survey of the field to be staged in Europe, and is a triumphant swansong for Boom as she retires from her post.