“Snap Noir: Snapshot Stories from the Collection of Robert E. Jackson” Exhibition
Pace MacGill
This event has ended.
The exhibition and features selections of anonymous vernacular photographs carefully chosen and sequenced by Jackson from his collection of over 11,000 snapshots.
The introduction of the Kodak camera by George Eastman in 1888 launched the genre of amateur snapshot photography. The majority of early snapshots were made primarily for personal reasons – to commemorate important events or achievements, to document vacations or road trips, or to capture casual portraits of family members and loved ones – essentially serving as visual surrogates for memory by preserving moments in time. Now removed from their original context of the family album and the private narratives that initially imbued them with personal relevance and value, these anonymous images of unknown provenance take on new meaning when reordered and recontextualized. They become aesthetic objects that can, as Jackson observes, “be appreciated and studied as both nostalgic curiosities and sociological artifacts.” With their often abrupt cropping, tilted horizons, out of focus subjects, and unintentional double exposures, amateur snapshots possess a sense of inventiveness and visual charm that are both unexpected and strangely compelling. Moreover, when arranged typologically by subject matter, formal device, or viewpoint, these pictures can create narrative resonances never intended by their makers.
Snap Noir, Jackson presents groups of similarly related snapshots, or “stories,” which are meant to be viewed collectively. Whether comprised of 4 or 21 photographs, each visual vignette allows viewers to derive their own interpretations and meanings as they confront and react to the assembled pictures. From the subtly unsettling and almost cinematic images of Snap Noir, to the voyeuristic views taken through chain link fences, and portraits of a man proudly posing in bikinis on a building rooftop, Jackson’s snapshot stories remind us that these found photographs cannot be approached in a traditional way, as they “exist simply to be experienced.”
[Image: Photographer Unknown “Untitled” (no date) gelatin silver print 4 x 4 in. © Robert E. Jackson]
Media
Schedule
from June 20, 2013 to August 21, 2013
Artist(s)
Robert E. Jackson et al.