Images of America.

PHOTOGRAPHER Lewis Hine's classic portrait of a little girl standing beside a Georgia cotton mill in 1909 says a lot about the pursuit of the American Dream--and not necessarily in the most flattering ways.

Hine, along with Walker Evans, Margaret Bourke-White and Edward Steichen are among the photographers represented in "The Photograph and the American Dream" exhibition, which makes its U.S. debut Oct. 18 at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Organized Into six central themes, the exhibit features 120 photographs taken from 1840 to 1940. They reflect important milestones in America's coming of age: the Civil War, the transcontinental railroad, the industrial age, World War I and the Great Depression. Alexander Graham Bell and the Wright brothers are among the subjects featured.

"They all have to do with the concept of photography playing a role in the American Dream," said Stephen White, the exhibition's curator and a Los Angeles-based photographic historian.

White found the photographs at flea markets and auctions. Some of them cost several thousand dollars, but he expects a return on this investment, having sold a previous collection to a Japanese museum.

The photographs also struck a chord with former President Bill Clinton, who was contacted through the American ambassador to the Netherlands and wrote a foreword for the exhibition's catalog.

"Clinton is interested in photography and has a collection of jazz photographs in his office," said White.

The exhibition first opened at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum and later moved to the Patrimoine Photographique in Paris. It will run at the Skirball until Jan. 4, 2004. For information: 310-440-4500.