Snapshots of the Past
Vassar Displays Exhibit “Other People’s Pictures.”
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is as serene as the Vassar College campus that surrounds it. However, just over a week ago, one room was filled with people — that is, pictures of people. “Other People’s Pictures” was an exhibition displayed from July 14 to September 17, featuring 200 early and mid-twentieth century photographs from the collection of Peter J. Cohen. The majority feature women going about their daily life and participating in everyday activities. What is so striking, however, is how sharply they contrast from the world today. For instance, not many women today would mention smoking a cigarette on their dorm room bed when describing their life in college.
Cohen’s journey into the past began 25 years ago when he purchased some old photographs from a flea market. He then began to seek out the images, and now his collection consists of some 70,000 pictures. No one truly knows who these people are, or when the photos were taken. Some pictures have a date or description scrawled on them — presumably by the original owner — but otherwise the time period is speculated by the type of paper they were developed on, or the model of a car featured in the background.
The exhibition was curated by Mary-Kay Lombino, who selected photographs from the gift given to Vassar College by Cohen and categorized them into everyday themes such as “Fashion of the Times,” “Going Places” and “Family Life.” The idea for the categories came from Cohen, who labelled his boxes of photos to organize them. When curating the exhibit, Lombino created her own themes in order to make the photographs more relatable to the viewer. Some of the photographs even feature fictional descriptions written by Vassar faculty, students and artists, drawing them further into what the lives of these women may have been like.
Lombino says the photos of women were used to reflect Vassar’s original founding as a women’s college, as well as modern feminist efforts, which have been spread through movements such as #futureisfemale. One section of the exhibit features categories such as “IndependentWomen” and “The Power of the Pose.” While the images in these photographs are from a completely different time, they reflect so closely the efforts women make today to break stereotypes.
“We don’t really print things [anymore]. They’re all just in the cloud,” says Lombino. But at the time these photographs were taken, the personal camera was new, novel and used like a party favor. Interestingly, Lombino thinks this is the same reason the millennials are so interested in the physical photograph. While today it is so easy to share digital images on social media, a printed photo is unique. She says that these pictures create a nostalgia for a time that this generation has never lived through.
Although no one ever walked into the exhibit and pointed out their grandmother in a photograph, there was a single occasion where someone was recognized. Cohen was once given a box of photos, which he accepted despite preferring to find the photographs himself. As he was looking through them, he came across a picture of people on a boat, the name of the ship clearly visible. One of the men standing on board was his grandfather.
These photographs were never intended to be art. They are not perfectly composed. They were taken by amateurs, and the moments captured are sometimes awkward, imperfect and even humorous. They are real moments. “Everyone has a shoebox full of pictures,” remarks the exhibition’s security guard. However, these images are honest glimpses into the past, which somehow simultaneously contrasts and reflects the present.
