Parry produced the hallucinatory inversion of tones in this photograph by making a copy negative of his original negative (creating a positive), and then making a negative print from it. The extra step in the normal negative-positive procedure created a ghost train hurtling through a plausible night, its black headlight the absence of warning.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Locomotive
Artist:Roger Parry (French, 1905–1977)
Date:1929
Medium:Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:21.5 x 16.3 cm (8 7/16 x 6 7/16 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
Accession Number:1987.1100.81
Inscription: Inscribed by Parry's widow in pencil on mount, verso LC: "1929. M.R. Parry"; inscribed in pencil on mount, verso LR: "0085RP5F // x 4B"
Roger Parry Estate; [Robert Miller to Waddell, June 18, 1982]; John C. Waddell
Variant reproduced: Photographs from The Julien Levy Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1976, #108, p.61.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 48," April 1–August 24, 2008.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. nos. 21, 39.
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