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Preview image of work. gelatin silver print,  Controlled Distortion (Self-Portrait) 11888

1998.6

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Controlled Distortion (Self-Portrait)

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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.