French novelist Marcel Proust (1871–1922) often reflected on photography and the new ways it allowed us to see the world. Inspired by his writings, Harvard PhD candidate Akili Tommasino studied photographs from our collections and selected works that he felt resonated with the author’s ideas. Tommasino's research soon developed into Proust’s Paris: Photographs from the Collections of the Harvard Art Museums, which presents a rich view of the City of Light as seen through the eyes of Proust’s contemporaries. The exhibition features digital reprints by artists such as Eugène Atget, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Edward Steichen, and Alfred Stieglitz.

Proust's Paris is now on view at Three Columns Gallery in Mather House at Harvard University, through April 22. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 8am to 4:30pm and it will host a special reception for the exhibition on Friday, April 19, from 5 to 6:30pm.

Proust’s Paris is organized in conjunction with the upcoming conference Proust and the Arts (Harvard University, April 19–20, 2013), which celebrates the centenary of Proust’s Swann’s Way, the first volume of his famous novel In Search of Lost Time.

A gallery of images from Proust’s Paris and information about additional programming are available on the Proust and the Arts website.