Snowflake
1905 · Gelatin silver printing-out-paper print
4 × 3" (10.1 × 7.6 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Wilson A. Bentley
Artist
WA-00032913
Photography
Representation
None documented
0
Institutional Exhibitions
1
Works in Collection
6
Assets Indexed
0
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
70%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
Influence Graph
No influence edges encoded yet.
Authority Records (3)
Source Registry (1)
- MoMA bulk 2026-05-04Tier 1 · Institutional92%
About
Why this artist matters now
Wilson A. Bentley was an American photographer renowned for his systematic documentation of individual snowflakes, beginning in 1885. Working in Jericho, Vermont, he developed innovative techniques to capture photomicrographs of ice crystals before they melted, producing over 5,000 distinct images across four decades. His meticulous approach combined scientific precision with aesthetic appreciation, establishing snowflake photography as both a meteorological record and an art form. Bentley's work anticipated modern crystallography and demonstrated the infinite variation within nature's smallest geometries.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 1mo ago
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Taste overlap and adjacency
Movement
—
Medium
Photography
Related Artists
6 in graph
Institutional
Museum Collections
Canonical record
Artworks (1)
Artwork sources (2)
1 published of 3 catalogued · 2 with image
- MoMA1 publishedof 2 catalogued2 img
- + 1 more source · 1 catalogued, not yet published
Record
Images
Relationships
2Collections2
Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, United States
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
Record
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