Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing The American Photo Album

An album revealing a mistress’ love affair with Al Capone; serial imagery of tent-city street life after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake – these are but two of 70 outstanding albums that invited the viewer to enter the everyday lives of turn-of-the-century Americans. Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album, premiered in May, 2005 at Reed College’s Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery in Portland, Oregon.

The exhibition was groundbreaking and the first to specifically explore the under-recognized visual creativity, storytelling, and folk artistry of early American vernacular photo albums. The exhibition was curated by Reed College Cooley Gallery director Stephanie Snyder and Curator, Barbara Levine. The exhibition was curated from Levine’s extensive vintage vernacular photography collection. The exhibition traveled to the San Francisco Main Public Library in 2006 and was accompanied by a comprehensive publication published by Princeton Architectural Press and designed by Martin Venezky.

In 2010, the International Center of Photography in New York acquired Levine's collection of vintage vernacular photography albums for it's permanent collection.

Want a copy of the exhibition catalogue? Buy it here