Description

In 1922 Jane Reece produced a handful of portraits of modern dancer Henry Losee (1901–1952) that blazed new trails both by producing a photogram (cameraless photography) and by incorporating it into a traditional photograph. The background here never existed in three dimensions; it was created by placing tissue or celluloid overlays on photosensitive paper. Each photogram is unique, so the background varies slightly in each print. Whether Reese was inspired by Cubist painting, the Vorticist photographs of Alvin Langdon Coburn, or the stage sets and lighting of avant-garde dance companies, the result is a daring experiment that moved Pictorialism toward modernism.