Infinite Pause: Photography and Time June 18–September 5, 2016
Harold E. Edgerton, Cutting the Card Quickly, 1964, dye imbibition print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of the Harold and Esther Edgerton Foundation. © The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation
![Harold E. Edgerton, [Bobby Jones Golf Swing, Side View], c. 1938, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of the Harold and Esther Edgerton Foundation. © The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation](https://static.mfah.com/images/edgerton---bobby-jones-golf-swing.2501608172005033046.jpg?width=1680){kind=link}
Harold E. Edgerton, [Bobby Jones Golf Swing, Side View], c. 1938, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of the Harold and Esther Edgerton Foundation. © The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation
Shōmei Tōmatsu, Atomic Bomb Damage: Wristwatch Stopped at 11:02, August 9, 1945, from the series 11:02—Nagasaki, 1961, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Janice and Robert C. McNair at “One Great Night in November, 2010,” in honor of the birth of their grandson, Robert Daniel McNair, and in the hope that during his lifetime there will be peace. © Tōmatsu Shōmei
Nicholas Nixon, The Brown Sisters, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1975, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Nina and Michael Zilkha, The Manfred Heiting Collection. © Nicholas Nixon
Nicholas Nixon, The Brown Sisters, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 2015, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Nina and Michael Zilkha, The Manfred Heiting Collection. © Nicholas Nixon
Aaron Siskind, No. 99, from the series Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation, 1961, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, bequest of Morgan Garwood. © Aaron Siskind Foundation
Detlef Erler, Pina Bausch, 1992, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Pampa Risso-Patrón, The Manfred Heiting Collection. © Detlef Erler
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sam Eric, Pennsylvania, 1978, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Louisa Stude Sarofim Charitable Trust courtesy of Mary Lawrence Porter and by the S. I. Morris Photography Endowment. © Hiroshi Sugimoto
Infinite Pause: Photography and Time explores photography’s ability to both stop time in an instant and to capture its extended duration. The camera can immortalize people and moments that have passed.
The exhibition looks at photography since the earliest days of the medium. Nearly 50 images from the Museum’s collection are on view, highlighting artists as diverse as Harry Callahan, Harold Edgerton, Étienne-Jules Marey, Duane Michals, Eadweard Muybridge, Nicholas Nixon, Aaron Siskind, and Hiroshi Sugimoto.
The first section of Infinite Pause features photographs that celebrate the medium's power as a visual record, extending the life of a subject. The second section focuses on works in which the camera has frozen time in an instantaneous flash or traced its sequential unfolding.
Photographs in the third section employ extended exposures to dive into the density and movement of light built up over time. The final section offers work by artists who take a conceptual approach, examining the passage of time through portraiture or experimenting with the layering of disparate moments into a narrative.
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.