Originally Posted by
Oren Grad
I saw this show today, got a close look at the prints.
Lots of hype over... not much. No image quality breakthrough here, whatsoever. She could have done better with an ordinary 8x10 camera, and would have had the freedom to tackle many more kinds of subjects to boot, rather than using her contraption to project on to 16x20 film. The collateral artifacts in the show include praise from assorted worthies but also make clear that she couldn't talk Steichen into a solo show of this stuff at MOMA, though he allowed some pieces into a group show. They also reveal that talented as she was as a photographer, she was a bit of a crackpot as an inventor.
Her setup needed lots of light. Among the artifacts there's a January 1946 letter from Harold Edgerton, to whom she had inquired about the possibility of having him build a light for her. Pending a more precise specification, he guessed a cost of $5000, which per the BLS CPI calculator is about $85,000 in today's money - which, of course, she couldn't remotely afford.
Worth a stop if you're curious about this little bit of photographic history and happen to be in Boston anyway, not worth a trip.
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