[Vault of Denver National Bank, Fisher & Fisher Architects]
Colorado native Laura Gilpin was a celebrated photographer of the American Southwest, specializing in sweeping landscapes and craggy summits. Lesser known is her commercial practice, which she first honed as a student at the Clarence H. White School in the 1910s. Founded by White, a fine-art photographer, the school advocated a rigorous formal approach even in projects for hire. This commission for a Denver architect’s illustrated monograph finds Gilpin taking such teachings to heart. With her help, a bank vault designed by the firm approaches grandeur. She comes in close and frames the vault from below. Light ripples across its steel surface in her exquisitely soft platinum print—its natural elements approaching manmade sublime.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Vault of Denver National Bank, Fisher & Fisher Architects]
- Artist: Laura Gilpin (American, 1891–1979)
- Date: 1929
- Medium: Platinum-palladium print
- Dimensions: 23.8 x 18.9 cm. (9 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
- Object Number: 1987.1100.133
- Rights and Reproduction: © 1979 Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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