"The Eventful Camera"
1999-07-24 until 2000-02-06
George Eastman House
Rochester, NY, USA United States of America

George Eastman House's first curator, Beaumont Newhall, wrote in the mid-1950s of an exhibition of Eventful Cameras, that is to say, cameras that have a story with them. The display would include both cameras that recorded significant events and those used by notable photographers, cinematographers, and innovators. The Eventful Camera, opening Saturday, July 24, takes Newhall's idea further, illustrating the interrelationship of the Museum's individual collections. The exhibition of notable photographic and motion picture apparatus will be complemented with artifacts from the photography, motion picture, library, and Eastman collections and will trace the history of photography and early cinema.

The Eventful Camera will display the first commercially sold camera in the United States, a daguerreotype camera purchased by Samuel Bemis in 1840, along with several daguerreotypes he made with that camera and the original bill of sale. Also on view will be the Parvo movie camera used by Charles Rosher to film Mary Pickford in the film Pollyanna (1920); cameras used by renowned photographers such as Mathew Brady, George Eastman, Alfred Stieglitz, and Alvin Langdon Coburn; and Ansel Adams's first camera, a Kodak No. 1 Brownie, given to him by his parents on his first trip to Yosemite National Park in 1916. The Eventful Camera is made possible through a generous gift from Enid and Jack Naylor.

Related Links:

The Photo Secession>

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of New York

Other Important Exhibitions in United States