Sealed Power Piston Rings

1933
Not on view
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.
Pennebaker was a star photographer at Underwood and Underwood Studios, an agency specializing in news, advertising, and stock photography. This diabolical image, created to promote a new type of automobile engine piston, was included in a 1934 exhibition of the era’s most innovative advertising photography held at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Sealed Power Piston Rings
  • Artist: John Paul Pennebaker (American, 1903–1953)
  • Date: 1933
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 25.3 x 34 cm (9 15/16 x 13 3/8 in.)
    Frame: 55.9 x 71.1 cm (22 x 28 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: 1934 Art and Industry Exhibition Photograph Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School, Boston, Mass. (olv work 490168)
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs