Snapshot of historic works in late-19th-century inspired by Kodak moments

Eastman Kodak has already filed papers for bankruptcy protection. Ironically, a museum in Washington, D.C. is harking back to the glory days when its cameras generated iPhone-kind of excitement among the then known artists.

Several leading painters/ printmakers then used photography for recording their private lives and public spheres, producing inventive results. The Kodak handheld camera’s invention in 1888 energized the creative vision and working methods of post-impressionists.

‘Snapshot: Painters and Photography’ revives the era of the late-19th-century. Artists from that time period had done experiments with their Kodak hand-held cameras. The show presents over 200 photographs and several related paintings, drawings and prints by them. Many of these have never been exhibited before. Collating them from renowned international collections, it focuses on the relationship among the artists’ work in a variety of media.

This new exhibition at the Phillips Collection features works by many prominent post-Impressionist artists like Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard etc and their experiments with the camera. Others such a George Hendrik Breitner, Henri Rivière and Henri Evenepoel enthusiastically explored the possibilities inherent in the medium.

They recorded everything from the building of the Eiffel Tower and bustling street scenes to family trips to the countryside and nude models. Although these artists produced over 10,000 photos, most of them in the exhibit are rather unknown and previously unpublished. None of them ever thought of themselves as expert photographers. These were mostly private objects, made for the very cause people make use of cameras even today: to capture moments with friends or family and commemorate events.

The artists translated their photographic images at times directly into their artworks in other media. When viewed right alongside these prints, paintings and drawings, the ‘snapshots’ collection does reveal some fascinating parallels in processes of foreshortening, lighting, cropping, silhouettes, and vantage point.

This Snapshot of historic works in late-19th-century inspired by Kodak moments is one not to be missed…