The Shadows on the Wall (Chrysanthemums)

Adolf de Meyer

ca. 1906 · Platinum print · Photographs

Focusing his camera not on a still life per se, but on its evanescent trace, de Meyer creates a composition that approaches abstraction. He later applied a similar handling of light and shadow to enhance the drama of his fashion photographs. Here, the shadow of a vase of flowers cast onto the wall has the effect of a Japanese lacquered screen.

Artist

Adolf de Meyer

Date

ca. 1906

Medium

Platinum print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1933