There’s an exhibition currently hanging at one of my favorite museums, the extremely comfortable Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, called Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard. It bascially shows how the advent of personal photography in the late 1800’s, with the invention of the Kodak handheld camera, changed how many artists worked. The camera allowed artists to capture moments without their easel as well as permitted them to ponder an image long after the moment had passed. This exhibit focuses mainly on the effect fo the camera on the Post-Impressionists, such as George Hendrik Breitner, whose photo of a girl in a kimono and the resulting painting is shown here.
I have seldom used photos as a pure reference source but, as this blog will attest, have been influenced by many of the photographed images I have come across through the years. I think this exhibit would be a wonderful insight into how the photographed image is used to translate the artistic vision. It runs at the Phillips until May 6 of this year.
Redtree Times 