Bracelets

Paul Outerbridge Jr.

1924 · Platinum print · Photographs

Originally a painter and set designer, Outerbridge became one of the most influential advertising photographers of his era. Informed by such modern artistic movements as Cubism and machine art, as well as the seductive elegance prized in advertising, Outerbridge’s photographs of the 1920s elevate banal, everyday objects to a level of startling beauty and formal rigor. Thus, his photography could stand as fine art at the same time it lent itself to commercial application. Here, in a carefully arranged and dramatically lit composition, the bracelets themselves are less important than the geometric forms they create, a complex play of interlocking circles and elliptical shadows.

Artist

Paul Outerbridge Jr.

Date

1924

Medium

Platinum print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of the artist, 1929