Age: 1940
Size: 14.5x17.75"
Weight: 6.8lbs
Maker: Barbara Morgan
Frame/Mat Size: 22.25x28.25"
Frame Description: Steel framed glass
Provenance: New Jersey Estate
Description: This black and white photograph depicts Martha Graham one of her famed poses in Barbara Morgan's photo-set "Letter to the World." In it, Graham is in motion, swirling her clothing about as she poses with a knee bent upward with her left forearm along the top of it. The right side of her body remains nearly rigid, a stark contrast to the contortions of her left side broken only by the whirl of her clothing behind her. The shadows play subtly off her left side, the viewer's right, creating a deeper darkness that lends itself to the contortions of Graham's body the more exposed to it she becomes. Outside the photograph itself, Barbara Morgan signed the photograph on the backing paper at the lower right corner, dating it 1940.
Condition: There are very minor scratches along the surface of the photograph, but the preservation is otherwise excellent. No tears or losses in quality.
History: Trained as a painter and printmaker at UCLA, Barbara Morgan (1900 – 1992) took up photography in the 1920s. Many of the photographs, which are vintage prints made during her lifetime, explore the theme of the dance. Morgan came to New York in the 1930s just as Martha Graham was becoming a rising star as a choreographer and dancer. In the mid-thirties, Morgan documented Graham's dance company through a series of photographs. The most famous of these photograph sets was "Letter to the World," in which Morgan experimented with light, motion, and camera focus to create dynamic photographs and striking visuals.