Volume 55, Number 7 · May 1, 2008
'Move Closer, Please'
By Caleb Crain
The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888–1978: From the Collection of Robert E. Jackson
an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., October 7–December 31, 2007, and the Amon Carter Museum, Forth Worth, Texas, February 16–April 27, 2008. Catalog of the exhibition by Sarah Greenough and Diane Waggoner, with Sarah Kennel and Matthew S. Witkovsky.
National Gallery of Art/Princeton University Press, 294 pp., $55.00; $45.00 (paper)
In the early nineteenth century, if a bird came into view and a hunter fired without having time to aim deliberately, the hunter was said to have taken a snapshot. According to The Oxford English Dictionary, Sir John Herschel applied the term to photography in 1860. Herschel, who also coined the word 'photographic,' was speculating about future possibilities; at the time, it was difficult to act on a sudden picture-taking impulse. Many cameras were bulky, because they had to be large enough to hold the chemically treated metal or paper that was sensitive to light and either matched in size, or itself became, the image finally displayed.
Review, 3872 words
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