3 /5 Stuart Davis: One of my best friends in graduate school was a film major at the University of Rochester and used to tell me about the amazing collections and photo archives in the permanent collection at this museum. So, when I went to Rochester it was my first stop. The house itself is beautiful with amazing history—I particularly enjoyed the life story of Eastman’s mother.
The photo exhibitions were sadly underwhelming—and to be honest that was what I was hoping to see more of!! They had examples of some of the greatest hits of American photography —-a picture from the Muybridge zoopraxiscope, some Paul Strand, Diane Arbus, etc along with some interesting ones from local artists. However , this made it all the more disappointing as I wanted more and more cohesion in the exhibition. I’m definitely not trying to backseat curate, but maybe having rotating exhibits from individual artists, focusing on periods (they seem to have tons of New Deal photography), or individual exhibits with a more clearly articulated theme would be awesome.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention the staff are INCREDIBLY friendly and helpful.