Image: Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Dulwich Picture Gallery scheduled a talk examining links between Édouard Manet’s modern Parisian scenes and the development of American street photography. ‘Behind the Lens: Édouard Manet and American Street Photography’ was due to take place at the London gallery on Friday 28 August, with Nils Ohlsen of Lillehammer Kunstmuseum as the speaker.
The event was presented as part of the gallery’s programme accompanying ‘Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography’, an exhibition focused on photography and the changing face of American cities. The exhibition was advertised as entering its final weeks ahead of its scheduled closing on 4 October.
According to the event description, Ohlsen’s presentation was to explore the relationship between Manet’s depictions of modern Paris and the emergence of American street photography. The announcement does not specify particular Manet paintings or photographers to be discussed, but it places the talk within a broader programme considering how photographers recorded rapidly changing urban environments.
The advertised programme also included a curator’s talk led by Alexander Moore, described as an opportunity to discover photographers who captured America’s rapidly changing cities. That event was scheduled for 12 August, and tickets included entry to the exhibition. The programme further listed talks on photography, walking and chance, as well as a presentation on workers depicted in Lewis Hine’s photographs of the Empire State Building.
The exhibition material associated with the programme names photographers including Helen Levitt and Lewis Hine. It also identifies a Hine image, ‘Riding the Ball High up on Empire State’, dating from around 1930 and held in the Savings Bank Foundation DNB Collection on deposit at Lillehammer Art Museum. The reference provides a direct institutional connection between the exhibition’s photography programme and Ohlsen’s home institution.
‘Behind the Lens: Édouard Manet and American Street Photography’ was listed for 28 August at Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, London, SE21 7AD.
