Snapshots From Maresca Collection At Newark Museum

Now is Then features images selected from a collection of more than 600 snapshots assembled by Frank Maresca, a leading expert on vernacular art, and donated to the Museum over the past six years. The exhibition and its accompanying scholarly catalogue “invite visitors to consider snapshots not as simple or inconsequential little pictures,” explained guest curator Marvin Heiferman, “but as compelling and complex cultural artifacts.”

In addition to the vintage photographs, Now is Then includes a continually changing presentation of contemporary digital snapshots submitted by the public. The public may submit up to 10 personal digital snapshots for inclusion in the exhibition by logging on to the Museum’s website, www.newarkmuseum.org, and following the path to Now is Then. The upload process through flickr.com is free. Public snapshots will be displayed on a dynamic installation of flat-screen monitors and may be submitted electronically throughout the duration of the exhibition which closes on May 11.

Now is Then, Heiferman explains, compels the visitor to consider: Why do snapshots play such a central role in our personal lives? How do we use them? Why do we value them? And, ultimately, what happens to them? “Seen together in The Newark Museum’s innovative installation,” Heiferman said, “these snapshots, old and new, reveal that while photographic technology changes constantly, our need for snapshots remains constant.” The images exhibited in Now is Then reflect the impact of photography as it became more and more accessible to amateur photographers in the twentieth century.

The introduction of the simple Brownie camera empowered the amateur photographer to document social events such as birthday parties, graduations, ballgames, vacations, or a new home or car. Stiff studio portraits taken by professionals were replaced by snapshots taken by photographers experimenting with poses, postures, gestures and facial expressions. Individually, the photos in this exhibition may appear familiar, humorous, tender, peculiar or mysterious. Together, they form an important document of the American social experience.

The Newark Museum exhibits the snapshots from the Maresca Collection on freestanding display cases rather than being conventionally matted, framed and hung on the walls, thus allowing the viewer to circulate through the exhibition space to respond more directly to the photographs’ more familiar scale and form. Now is Then also includes vintage snapshot cameras, photo album pages, store signage, and other ephemera.

“Snapshots are powerful little pictures,” wrote Heiferman in the exhibition’s catalogue. “With the press of a button, a picture is taken, and in an instant, now becomes then,” he continued. “They’re quirky, with double exposures, light leaks, and shadows, yet they’re endearing, whether or not they are ours.” Heiferman, who has organized exhibitions on visual art and culture for The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The New Museum, the International Center of Photography, Exit Art and P.S. 1, is currently the creative consultant to the Smithsonian Photography Initiative. He has authored numerous books on visual imagery and popular culture. -- www.newarkmuseum.org