Index

William Wegman

1972 · Gelatin silver prints · Photographs

In many of his early photographs, Wegman deconstructs specific aspects of the medium and its technology via visual puns, homonyms, and wordplay. Index is a five-part work comparing the symmetry of the artist’s own hands, in which he elongated each digit to the length of the pointer, or index, finger; he then printed alternating negatives in reverse to further confuse the two digits seen in each print. The results are a witty rejoinder to the hoary cliché that photographs are “indexical” records of their subjects.

Artist

William Wegman

Date

1972

Medium

Gelatin silver prints

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2016