Curated by Adelina Vlas

In Authorization, 1969, Michael Snow transformed the seemingly static, two-dimensional photographic medium into something both sculptural and performative: Shooting his own reflection with a tripod-mounted camera, he then pasted the resulting self-portrait onto the mirror’s surface, repeated the process four more times, and exhibited the collaged result. That same year, in One Second in Montreal, Snow took a different tack, producing a motion picture using only a series of still images of snowy landscapes. Both works showcase the Canadian artist’s eccentric approach to photography, a medium fundamental to his entire oeuvre and the focus of this survey at the Philadelphia Museum (the first exhibition to specifically address this element of his practice since “Projects: Michael Snow—Photographs” at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1976). Curator Adelina Vlas will bring together some thirty pieces made between 1962 and 2003 in which Snow diffracts photography across painting, sculpture, film, and music.

— Branden W. Joseph