Mosaic Eugene, Frank  (American, 1865-1936)

A series of photographs by Eugene, which he published as individual photographs under the title Mosaic, constituted a high point in dance photography. It was with this particular motif that Eugene’s radical and “unphotographic” method of “photo-etching” attained a high degree of expressiveness. The composition awakens formal associations with dancing and achieves its dynamism not so much as a result of the dancer’s pose as of the photograph’s rich background ornamentation. Heart-shaped points in concentric spirals joint up to form dynamic lines of force whose rhythmic structure is reminiscent of comparable ornamental structures in paintings by Klimt, Moreau, Stuck or Spillaert. [1]

Reproduced / Exhibited

Dawm, Patrick, Francis Ribemont, and Philip Prodger. Impressionist Camera: Pictorial Photography in Europe, 1888-1918. London: Merrell Holberton, 2006. fig. 143

References

[1] Eugene, Frank, and Ulrich Pohlmann. Frank Eugene, the Dream of Beauty. Munich: Nazraeli Press, 1995 p. 137