National Museum of Norway

SNAP. Documentary and Portrait. Photography from the Collection
February 17–September 3, 2017

National Museum of Norway
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Bankplassen 4
0151 Oslo
Norway

www.nasjonalmuseet.no

Does documentary photography show a true picture of the world? Do portrait photographs capture a person’s identity? Today pictures are shared in vast numbers on social media. This exhibition explores how photography has pictured people from the 19th century to the present.

The exhibition sheds light on three key periods in the documentary genre: 1880s social documentary, 1960s street photography, and 1990s everyday documentary.

In the portrait genre, Snap shows contemporary photography from the 1990s through to 2016. The exhibition explores how identity and political standpoints are conveyed and how portrait and documentary photography interweave to create new narratives about the times in which we live. 

Snap presents more than 100 photographs—both from the collection and loaned in for the occasion—by 30 acclaimed Norwegian and international photographers.

Artists from the collection
Annika von Hausswolff, Arild Kristo, Christer Strömholm, Cindy Sherman, Dag Alveng, Dan Young, Esko Männikkö, Fin Serck-Hanssen, Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty, Mette Tronvoll, Mikkel McAlinden, Nan Goldin, Per Maning, Robert A. Robinson, Rossella Biscotti, Signe Marie Andersen, Sophie Calle, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Torfinn Michaelsen, Tom Sandberg, Torbjørn Rødland, Vibeke Tandberg and Wilhelm Piro

On loan
Jacob A. Riis, Lewis Hine, Mikkel McAlinden (Preus Museum), Rineke Dijkstra (Jan Mot, Brussels), Tacita Dean (Frith Street Gallery, London), Signe Marie Andersen (Galleri Riis), Jon Benjamin Tallerås and Verena Winkelmann

Research project
Exhibition and peer reviewed catalogue text by the exhibition curator, Eva Klerck Gange. The catalogue includes a text by Hege Oulie, Preus Museum.

Curator Exhibition: Eva Klerck Gange
Curator Education: Anita Rebolledo
Project Manager: Lita Ellingsen