Hymen Meisel (1898–1985). Inside Camera Works, 1945. Courtesy Visual Studies Workshop.
Ali Feser, PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, will discuss her research on the history of Eastman Kodak Company and its impact on social life in Rochester. The talk is based on two years of participant observation and interviews, as well as archival research at the George Eastman Museum and other local institutions.
Free to members; included with museum admission.
The photo is from Hymen Meisel, who lived in Rochester for his entire life and worked for many years at Eastman-Kodak's Camera Works factory. A member of the Kodak Camera Club, he made thousands of slides over his lifetime, detailing his travels through the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, as well as his daily life in Rochester. This collection provides an opening to consider vernacular photographic practice, middle class ways of life, and the transformation of urban space in the mid-twentieth century.