1998.6
Controlled Distortion (Self-Portrait)
Artist
Berenice Abbott, H 1982
(Springfield, Ohio, 1898 - 1991, Monson, Maine)
Title
Controlled Distortion (Self-Portrait)
Creation Date
1930
Century
20th century
Dimensions
6 7/8 in. x 4 5/8 in. (17.46 cm. x 11.75 cm.)
Classification
Photographs
Creation Place
North America, United States
Medium and Support
gelatin silver print
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
1998.6
American Berenice Abbott moved to Paris in 1921, where she served as a darkroom assistant to Man Ray. She eventually became a master photographer in her own right, as well as an inventor of equipment such as the distortion easel, patented in 1951. Projecting the negative of a 1930 portrait onto photographic paper mounted on the flexible easel, she created distorted variations of her own likeness. Her cool self-confidence prevents a reading of the results as a statement of psychological conflict; the images instead appear to be playful experiments. Abbott was a proponent of straight photography and was firmly set against manipulation in her own creative work. The small handful of distorted self-portraits she made were created to advertise and sell the distortion easel, rather than for her own artistic self-expression.