Barbara Morgan, Lamentation (Oblique), 1935 (printed 1980s), gelatin silver print on paper, image: 17 ¼ × 13 ½ inches, sheet: 19 ⅞ × 15 ⅞ inches. Black Mountain College Collection, Museum purchase, 2017.24.01. © Barbara and Willard Morgan photographs and papers, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA. The trained eye of Morgan’s camera freezes in time the tense and sorrowful choreography of Martha Graham’s seminal 1930 work, Lamentation. The image typifies Morgan’s ability to capture the critical moment in movement expression. The oblique lines created by Graham’s tubelike costume and angular limbs, neither parallel nor perpendicular to a standard axis, drive the physicality and emotion of the composition. Morgan’s photograph documents the aesthetics of modern art, architecture, and design as they translate to the body. The dramatic lighting that brings out these details defines much of Morgan’s work and reflects elements of her photography course while at Black Mountain College during the Summer Art Institute of 1944.
—Hilary Schroeder, Curatorial Assistant
