The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography has chosen to link two concurrent shows by using the word “snapshot” in both titles; appropriately, the curatorial intent is a bit blurry and underdeveloped. Yes, many of the works embody spontaneity or achieve a certain gritty artlessness, but the casual snapshot doesn’t really cover the vast array of aesthetics on display.
The 3rd floor’s “Snapshots Cast Their Spell” mixes together famous and lesser-known masters. Suffice it to say, Paul Fusco’s “RFK Funeral Train,” a series that poignantly documents a stationary procession of waving, saluting, gawping humanity, all gathered to witness the passing of a dream, is worth the price of admission. The images downstairs in “Radiant Moments: The New Snapshot” aren’t quite as timeless, but this selection of contemporary Japanese photography is at least more focused.
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