Getty Museum

[Time Space Continuum]

Creator

American Photographer · 1879–1973

AuthorArtist

> The camera is a witness of objects, places, and events... The technical process simply serves as a vehicle of transcription and not as the art. > --Edward Steichen Edward Steichen became interested in photography at age sixteen. Influenced by the atmosphere of moonlight that came to characterize his early Pictorialist photographs, he also painted. Upon turning twenty-one, he left for Europe by w

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Date: 1920
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

A glass dish, a letter opener, a chunk of wood, and a curious board with numbered hieroglyphic-like figures are some of the disparate objects brought together to create this abstract study of light and shape. Nearly every line is a diagonal, and no two objects meet at an exact point, giving the image an intrinsic dynamism. Tiny triangles of white peek out through cracks and crevices, creating new forms out of light and shadow where none had existed. The various textures, from smooth glass to gravelly pebbles, balance the compelling composition with their visual weightiness. This is an unusual image for Edward Steichen, inspired by and titled after an aspect of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

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