Art photography that imitates the aesthetics of painting—so-called “Pictorial” photography—is nearly as old as the medium itself. Pictorialists of the nineteenth century staged didactic allegories and sentimental genre scenes; the title of this later effort cites a modernist school, Cubism. A. Aubrey Bodine, whose work appeared both in art photography “salons” and in a weekly feature in the Baltimore Sun, did not stoop to darkroom manipulation in creating this head-turning abstraction. Stare at his straight photograph the right way, and the zigzagging subjects will reveal themselves. Common sights on the streets of Baltimore, they were quarried in nearby Cockeysville, Maryland.
A. Aubrey Bodine (1906–1970), Cubist Design, 1945. Gelatin silver print. Purchased on the Photography Acquisition Fund, 2017.388.