[Self-Portrait with Camera and Model]
Harold Leroy Harvey exhibited at the San Francisco Salon of 1916 when he was only seventeen. He is believed to have studied with Man Ray in the early 1920s, and the two men did in fact share similar interests in experimental printing techniques. Harvey's invention of various film developers and toners led eventually to the founding of his own company, the Harvey Chemical Company, in New Jersey. In addition to working as a commercial photographer, he was a painter and an illustrator.
This image, photographed in a mirror, comments on the dynamics of photographic portraiture. Primary placement is given to the model, behind her is the camera, and in the background, beyond the camera's narrow depth of field and hence out of focus, is the photographer himself. The lens of the camera may replace the right eye of the photographer, but it is his exposed, almost hypnotic left eye that embodies his creative vision--the vision that orchestrated the balanced and subtly lit composition and elicited the model's perfect composure. Here is Pygmalion in reverse--the living model re-created by the artist as a work of art. Still as a statue, she even provides her own graceful pedestal.
This image, photographed in a mirror, comments on the dynamics of photographic portraiture. Primary placement is given to the model, behind her is the camera, and in the background, beyond the camera's narrow depth of field and hence out of focus, is the photographer himself. The lens of the camera may replace the right eye of the photographer, but it is his exposed, almost hypnotic left eye that embodies his creative vision--the vision that orchestrated the balanced and subtly lit composition and elicited the model's perfect composure. Here is Pygmalion in reverse--the living model re-created by the artist as a work of art. Still as a statue, she even provides her own graceful pedestal.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Self-Portrait with Camera and Model]
- Artist: Harold Leroy Harvey (American, 1899–1971)
- Date: ca. 1930
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 30.2 x 20.2 cm (11 7/8 x 7 15/16 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Marlene Nathan Meyerson Family Foundation Gift, 2005
- Object Number: 2005.100.627
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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