Snelson creates startling new impressions of familiar New York landmarks by capturing in one shot far more than the human eye can absorb naturally. The flattening of a 360° view brings to light a symmetry within the streets of the city that was previously imperceptible. The work Wall Street, 1980, effectively illustrates this approach, with its perfectly spaced stone facades. The artist explains, “My primary interest in all of my panoramas is to discover an unexpected order in reconstructing the location and its geometry as if to transform an Earth globe into a cartographic projection.” The former curator of the DeCordova Museum, Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, has pointed out that Snelson’s “investigation of the underlying principles of structure” is the link between his photography and his brilliantly engineered sculptures. 

To capture these images, Snelson used a vintage 1917, sixteen-inch “Cirkut” camera, one of only thirty ever made. He would transport the eighty-pound camera on his bicycle to search for the perfect composition, setting out at dawn on Sundays to take advantage of the empty streets. The fact that notoriously crowded areas, such as Times Square and the Flatiron District, are completely barren in these photographs adds to the sense of unfamiliarity that these wide-angle views evoke. 

Born in Pendleton, Oregon in 1927, Snelson graduated from the University of Oregon and served in the US Navy in World War II. After the war he enrolled at Black Mountain College in North Carolina where he studied with Josef Albers and encountered Buckminster Fuller. In 1951 Snelson studied with Léger at the Academie Montmartre in Paris and by 1960 created his first large-scale sculptural works whereby he entered a new, innovative artistic territory. He has spent sixty years composing brilliant, wholly new sculptural compositions, and his accomplishments in this regard are historically unique. He lives and works in New York.

Snelson has received numerous honors and awards, including: New York State Council on the Arts Sculpture, 1971; American Institutes of Architects’ Medal, 1981; Honorary Doctorate, Arts and Humane Letters, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 1985; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Art Award, 1987; Membership, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1994; Lifetime Achievement Award, International Sculpture Center, Hamilton, NJ, 1999; The Elizabeth N. Watrous Prize, National Academy of Design, New York, NY, 2002.

His work can be found in public and corporate collections all over the world, including: The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Dallas Museum of Fine Art, TX; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo, Holland; Rijksmuseum Staedelijk, Amsterdam, Holland; Shiga Museum of Modern Art, Japan; Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Snelson's work can be found in public and corporate collections all over the world, including: The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Dallas Museum of Fine Art, Dallas, Texas; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo, The Netherlands; Rijksmuseum Staedelijk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Shiga Museum of Modern Art, Otsu, Shiga, Japan; Stanford University, Palo Alto, California ; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York.