Micheal Snow Photo-Centric

Investigating the limits of representation

Conceived in close collaboration with Michael Snow—one of the most important experimental filmmakers of his generation—Michael Snow: Photo-Centric is a focused survey of the Canadian artist’s photography-based work, which has not been the subject of a solo museum exhibition in the United States since the 1970s.

I worked closely with Curator Adelina Vlas and the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Publication department to design the catalogue for the exhibition. The catalogue focuses on a selection of the artist’s photographic work from 1962 to the present.

The publication considers Snow’s interest in late modernism’s self-reflexivity and, specifically, his exploration of how the mechanics of photography affect perception, cognition, and consciousness. Essays by Adelina Vlas and the artist himself consider the importance of Snow’s photographic work within his larger practice, its connection with and continuation of modernist ideas, and its experimental quality within the history of the medium.

I chose the Canadian typeface Gibson, as a nod to Snow’s national origin. I also played with the idea of the repetition of images and reflected typography to enhance the spirit of experimentation in Snow’s work, as well as a method to question concepts of representation and originality.