Meet Snapshot: George Hendrik Breitner

George Hendrik Breitner (1857–1923)
George Hendrik Breitner, a friend of Vincent van Gogh, painted primarily in Amsterdam, depicting the lives of the working class. He took photographs from 1889 to around 1915 with several cameras. Breitner took most of his snapshots while walking around Amsterdam, Paris, and London, and is considered a pioneer of street photography. About 3,000 of his photographs exist today.

Meet Snapshot: Félix Vallotton

Félix Vallotton (1865–1925)
Félix Vallotton was a painter, engraver, draftsman, art critic, and writer who began taking photographs in 1899 with a Kodak and developed his own film. Only 20 photographs by Vallotton have survived; he may have destroyed others after being criticized for making a painting based on a photograph. Vallotton exchanged photographs with his Nabis friends; his family archive contains photographs by Vuillard, and Vuillard owned photographs by Vallotton.

Meet Snapshot: Henri Evenepoel

Henri Evenepoel (1872–1899)
Born to Belgian parents, Henri Evenepoel lived in Paris in the 1890s until his death at age 27. A student of Gustave Moreau and friend and classmate of Henri Matisse, he left some 1,000 drawings and paintings of Parisian life. Evenepoel bought a Pocket Kodak in 1897. He did his own developing and printing and considered becoming a professional photographer. He took almost 875 photographs, creating novel images and recording his family and studio.