[Stairway, Eiffel Tower, Paris]

Ilse Bing

1931 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Rather than emphasize the vertical height of the Eiffel Tower or its iconic status, Bing’s photograph plunges us into the dizzying midst of its iron frame. Stairs and beams run at unexpected angles to one another, intersecting and overlapping to create visual pulls in countervailing directions. Three figures, facing in opposite directions, underscore this sense of fragmented space and centrifugal energy. Like other photographers in Germany and France during these years, Bing makes use of unconventional viewpoints, angling her camera skyward to foreground the visual nature of urban experience in the modern metropolis.

Artist

Ilse Bing

Date

1931

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987