{
"data": {
"id": 159327,
"accession_number": "1996.12",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Brooklyn Bridge, 1980. Kenneth Snelson (American, 1927\u20132016). Gelatin silver print; image: 39.4 x 231.9 cm (15 1/2 x 91 5/16 in.); paper: 50.5 x 243.2 cm (19 7/8 x 95 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Wishing Well Fund, 1996.12",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Brooklyn Bridge",
"creation_date": "1980",
"creation_date_earliest": 1980,
"creation_date_latest": 1980,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1951-Present",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 39.4 x 231.9 cm (15 1/2 x 91 5/16 in.); Paper: 50.5 x 243.2 cm (19 7/8 x 95 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.394,
"height_inch": 15,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 2.319,
"width_inch": 91,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125
},
"paper": {
"height": 0.505,
"height_inch": 19,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.875,
"width": 2.432,
"width_inch": 95,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in black felt pen on recto: \"K. Snelson 1980 5/15\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311875,
"title": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1996-11-24T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: \"Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art.\"",
"opening_date": "1997-02-02T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This sweeping photograph of New York's Brooklyn Bridge and East River is from a series of panoramas that grew from Kenneth Snelson's desire to see in all directions at once, a feat impossible for the human eye. Using an antique, turn-of-the-century Kodak Cirkut camera, in 1980 Snelson made a number of monumental photographs of New York City landmarks. Mounted on a tripod, a small motor rotated the entire camera while the film was driven at the same speed in the opposite direction past an opening. This enabled exposures of 360\u00b0 or more. Taking about 40 seconds to make its complete circuit, the camera produced vast negatives about sixteen inches high and nearly eight feet long, which were then contact-printed. This compelling composition is difficult to decipher since the straight lines that angle away from the camera appear curved in the flattened image. The freeways shown on both sides of the photograph are actually a single roadway.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79978747"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 326",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cThe Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,\u201d March 18, 1996, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr4027"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1996.12",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Wishing Well Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 159327,
"creators": [
{
"id": 921,
"description": "Kenneth Snelson (American, 1927\u20132016)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Kenneth Snelson American, 1927- Photographer Kenneth Snelson is perhaps better known for his large-scale outdoor sculptures made of tubular steel and cable. Piqued by his father's trade in high-quality German cameras, his interest in photography began as a child. After studying at the University of Oregon (1946-48), Black Mountain College in North Carolina (where his teachers included Josef Albers, Buckminster Fuller, and Willem de Kooning, 1948-49), and the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology (1950), Snelson studied with Fernand L\u00e9ger at the Acad\u00e9mie Montmartre in Paris (1951). Upon his return, he worked as a cinematographer in order to pay for his sculpture. He began creating panoramic photographs in 1975 with the purchase of a Wide-Lux camera that allowed a 140 view. In 1983 he began using a Cirkut 16 camera, which produced negatives 40 centimeters x 3 meters in size and allowed a 360 view. Born in Pendleton, Oregon, Snelson has taught at Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, and the School of the Visual Arts in New York, and at Southern Illinois University and Yale University. He has received awards from the New York State Council on the Arts (1971), the National Endowment for the Arts (1974, 1975), a Deutsches Akademishes Austauschdienst (daad) Fellowship, Berlin (1975), the American Institute of Architects Medal (1981), an honorary doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1985), and the American Institute of Arts and Letters Award (1987).",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1927",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1996-03-04T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1980,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1980",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": "5",
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:52:02.443000"
}
}