Photo Finish

In a career-making maneuver that has the art world speculating about her next feat, curator Maria Morris Hambourg resuscitated New York's Metropolitan Museum's sleepy photography department by masterminding the acquisition of John C. Waddell's coveted collection. Now these vintage prints are on display in "The New Vision: Photography Between the World Wars,'' a tribute to a moment when artists dropped their brushes and embraced "the speed and scientific precision of the camera" as more modem. "This was the period," claims Hambourg, "that shaped the way we see today." While colleagues laud her "tough, serious scholarship," detractors grumble that she co-opts "Waddell's vision as her own." But the exhibition's real stars are the photographers. Watch for Man Ray's ode to an armpit and James Doolittle's spookily flawless effigy of Marlene Dietrich.

AMY FINE COLLINS