Thursday, March 01, 2012

The Three Graces: Snapshots of 20th-Century Women

Lens Culture... The Three Graces: Snapshots of 20th-Century Women - photographs compiled by Michal Raz-Russo. "...Snapshots preserve more than individual likeness and memory. Photographs of celebrations, vacations, and gatherings of family and friends are collected with the aim of constructing and preserving a personal identity for future generations. What happens, however, when a snapshot becomes an image 'type' - transferred into the hands of a collector and folded into a broader cultural history? This and many other questions are discussed in this fascinating selection of anonymous images depicting three women. Presumably all taken by nonprofessionals, these snapthots were acquired over time by a private collector interested in their eclectic yet familiar details, who named the grouping after the iconic Greco-Roman motif, the Three Graces."