Snapshot exhibit captures Americana
By Ryan • Nov 5th, 2007 • Category: Loose Ends, News for Creatives (archives), PhotographyBy Kristen Powell for theeagleonline.com:
“‘Snapshot’ is a hunting term referring to a shot taken quickly and without a fixed target. When Kodak made photography accessible to the masses in 1888, people began hunting for the perfect shot to paste in their albums, show their friends and document their lives. The National Gallery’s exhibit, ‘The Art of the American Snapshot 1888-1978,’ chronologically documents the evolution of the amateur photograph from its earliest years up through the late 1970s, when photography had become a part of everyday life.
Walking through the ‘American Snapshot’ exhibit is like walking through your grandparents’ photo album. The faces might not be familiar, but the scenes of U.S. life certainly are. It’s hard not to smile at the pictures of people hugging, playing and even sleeping. Each picture is a window into someone’s life, and together they form an astonishingly universal picture of what the United States was like in the different time periods the pictures represent.“
Ryan is
Email this author | All posts by Ryan
