Visual Relics (1940-1947)

PaJaMa
(Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret French)
Margaret French, Hoboken NJ
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Consuelo Kanaga
Wharton Esherick, Master Woodworker
1940
bromide print
Brooklyn Museum

Drahomir Josef Ruzicka
Pennsylvania Station, New York
1941
chlorobromide print
Brooklyn Museum

Edmund Teske
Nude - Davenport, Iowa
1942
gelatin silver print
Denver Art Museum

Philippe Halsman
Ballet Production
1944
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Philippe Halsman
Portrait of a Woman
1944
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Weegee
Woman at the Bar, Eddie Condon's, Greenwich Village
ca. 1945
gelatin silver print
Indianapolis Museum of Art

W. Eugene Smith
Martha Graham and Eric Hawkins
ca. 1945
gelatin silver print
Indianapolis Museum of Art

Laura Gilpin
Chichen Itza
1946
gelatin silver print
Denver Art Museum

Man Ray
Frosted Objects (of my Affection)
1946
rayograph
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Nikolas Muray
Frida Kahlo, New York
1946
carbon pigment print
Brooklyn Museum

Athol Shmith
Fashion Shot
1946
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Sid Grossman
Coney Island
ca. 1947
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Sid Grossman
Coney Island
ca. 1947
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Godfrey Frankel
Window, 3rd Avenue El, New York
1947
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Walker Evans
Untitled
ca. 1947
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

But Dido – for who can deceive a lover? –

had caught his craftiness; she quickly sensed

what was to come; however safe they seemed,

she feared all things. That same unholy Rumor

brought her these hectic tidings: that the boats

were being armed, made fit for voyaging.

Her mind is helpless; raging frantically,

inflamed, she raves through the city – just

as a Bacchante when, each second year,

she is startled by the shaking of the sacred 

emblems, the orgies urge her on, the cry

"o Bacchus" calls to her by night; Cithaeron

incites her with its clamor. And at last

Dido attacks Aeneas with these words . . .

– Aeneas fails to conceal from Dido his intended departure, from Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (1971)

Visual Relics (1936-1940)

Madame Yevonde
Portrait of Vivien Leigh
1936
dye transfer print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Lewis Wickes Hine
Worker seated at Cylinder
ca. 1936
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Laure Albin-Guillot
Untitled
1937
carbon print
Yale University Art Gallery

Theodore Roszak
Photogram with Three Spheres
ca. 1937
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Walker Evans
James Agee, Old Field Point, NY
1937
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Dorothea Lange
Spring Plowing in Cauliflower Fields, Guadalupe, California
1937
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Paul Outerbridge
Chrysanthemums
1938
carbro print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Edward Steichen
Block of Blue-Wave Delphiniums
1938
dye transfer print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Edward Steichen
Delphiniums, Ridgefield, Connecticut
1939
dye transfer print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Max Dupain
Discus Thrower
ca. 1939
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Angus McBean
Self-Portrait as Neptune
1939
bromide print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Lee Miller
Portrait of Leonora Carrington
1939
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Morris Engel
Coney Island
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Keast Burke
Finlandia
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Keast Burke
Harvest
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Jack Cato
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

                                       "Are you
now laying the foundation of high Carthage,

as servant to a woman, building her

a splendid city here? Are you forgetful

of what is your own kingdom, your own fate?

The very god of gods, whose power sways 

both earth and heaven, sends me down to you

from bright Olympus. He himself has asked me

to carry these commands through the swift air:

what are you pondering or hoping for

while squandering your ease in Libyan lands?

For if the brightness of such deeds is not

enough to kindle you – if you cannot

attempt the task for your own fame – remember

Ascanius growing up, the hopes you hold

for Iülus, your own heir, to whom are owed

the realm of Italy and land of Rome."

So did Cyllene's god speak out. He left 

the sight of mortals even as he spoke

and vanished into the transparent air. 

– Mercury conveys Jupiter's displeasure to Aeneas, from Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (1971)

Visual Relics (1934-1936)

Edmund Teske
Jim Sullivan and Brooklyn Bridge
ca. 1934
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Geoffrey Collings
Camden, N.S.W.
1934
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Alexander Rodchenko
Diver
1934
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Alexander Rodchenko
Photo-Reporter Evgenia Lemberg with Leica
1934
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Alexander Rodchenko
Sports Parade on Red Square
1936
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Berenice Abbott
Under the El, Lower East Side, New York
ca. 1935
gelatin silver print
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Clarence Sinclair Bull
Greta Garbo
ca. 1935
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Ilse Bing
Amboise Rooftops
1935
gelatin silver bromide print
Yale University Art Gallery

Consuelo Kanaga
Man with Rooster
ca. 1935
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Consuelo Kanaga
Angelo Herndon, Labor Organizer
ca. 1935
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Nathan Lerner
Girl in Boat
1935
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Nathan Lerner
Swimmer, Chicago
1935
selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Roman Vishniac
Grandfather and Granddaughter, Warsaw
ca. 1935
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

August Sander
Stone Quarry in the Siebengebirge
(series, Rhineland Landscapes)
1935
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Dora Maar
Leonor Fini lying on a Floor strewn with Clothes
ca. 1936
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Dora Maar
Untitled
1936
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Iarbas was the son of Hammon by

a ravished nymph of Garamantia.
In his broad realm he had built a hundred temples,

a hundred handsome shrines for Jupiter.

There he had consecrated sleepless fire,

the everlasting watchman of the gods;

the soil was rich with blood of slaughtered herds,

and varied garlands flowered on the thresholds.

Insane, incited by that bitter rumor,

he prayed long – so they say – to Jupiter;

he stood before the altars in the presence

of gods, a suppliant with upraised hands:

"All-able Jove, to whom the Moorish nation,

feasting upon their figured couches, pour

Lenean sacrifices, do you see

these things? Or, Father, are we only trembling

for nothing when you cast your twisting thunder?

Those fires in the clouds that terrify

our souls – are they but blind and aimless lightning

that only stirs our empty mutterings?

A woman, wandering within our borders,

paid for the right to build a tiny city.

We gave her shore to till and terms of tenure.

She has refused to marry me, she has taken 

Aeneas as a lord into her lands.

And now this second Priam, with his crew

of half-men, with his chin and greasy hair

bound up beneath a bonnet of Maeonia,

enjoys his prey; while we bring offerings

to what we have believed to be your temples,

still cherishing your empty reputation."

–  Dido's neighbor-king complains to Jupiter of her unchastity, from Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (1971)

Visual Relics (1930-1933)

Julian Smith
Adonis
ca. 1930
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Ilse Bing
Moulin Rouge
1931
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Jacques-Henri Lartigue
Renée Perle reclining
1931
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Edward Steichen
Portrait of Beatrice Lillie
1931
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Lee Miller
Self Portrait
1932
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, London

August Sander
Master Mason
1932
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Ramsay & Muspratt
Virginia Woolf and Angelica Garnett
1932
bromide print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Clarence Kennedy
Detail of unfinished monument to Cardinal Niccolò Forteguerri
carved by Andrea del Verrocchio
1932
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Clarence Kennedy
Detail of unfinished monument to Cardinal Niccolò Forteguerri
carved by Andrea del Verrocchio
1932
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Wendell MacRae
Radio City Music Hall Stage
ca. 1932
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Madame Yevonde
Portrait of Cathleen Sabine Mann
1932
Vivex colour print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Brassaï
 Le Monocle, Montparnasse (lesbian bar)
ca. 1932
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Man Ray
Study for Book Cover
1933
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Ansel Adams
Golden Gate, San Francisco
ca. 1933
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Grancel Fitz
Colgate Advertisement
1933
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Alma Lavenson
Eucalyptus Leaves
1933
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Meanwhile confusion takes the sky, tremendous

turmoil, and on its heels, rain mixed with hail.

The scattered train of Tyre, the youth of Troy,

and Venus' Dardan grandson in alarm

seek different shelters through the fields; the torrents

roar down the mountains. Dido and the Trojan

chieftain have reached the same cave. Primal Earth

and Juno, queen of marriages, together

now give the signal: lightning fires flash,

the upper air is witness to their mating,

and from the highest hilltops shout the nymphs.

That day was her first day of death and ruin.

For neither how things seem nor how they are deemed

moves Dido now, and she no longer thinks 

of furtive love. For Dido calls it marriage,

and with this name she covers up her fault. 

– Dido and Aeneas copulate, from Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (1971)