Object number1973.22.7

Transformation of Energy

Date1958-1961

Artist Berenice Abbott (American, 1898-1991)

CultureAmerican

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 15 x 19 1/8 in. (38.1 x 48.6 cm)
Matted: 21 7/8 x 28 in. (55.6 x 71.1 cm)
Mount: 17 1/8 x 23 in. (43.5 x 58.4 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, The Charles E. Merrill Trust Fund

On View

Not on view

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Photograph

SignedOn overmat, signed lower right in pencil: BERENICE ABBOTT

MarkingsOn the reverse of the mount, photographer's credit stamp center in ink [upside down]: PHOTOGRAPH / BERENICE ABBOTT / ABBOTT, MAINE 04406

BibliographyMorel, Gaëlle. Berenice Abbott. Paris: Éditions Hazan, 2012, p. 165; O'Neil, Hank. Berenice Abbott. Göttingen: Steidl, 2008, v. I, pp. 242-243; O’Neal, Hank. Berenice Abbott, American Photographer. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982, p. 220

Vassar Exhibitions

Photography as Data: Augmentation, Extraction, Objectification

Exhibition HistoryPhotography as Data: Augmentation, Extraction, Objectification, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, April 9 - September 15, 2024

Label TextBerenice Abbott made this photograph to illustrate a high school physics textbook. A playful experiment with photographic technique, it illustrates visually how the potential energy of a swinging pendulum (greatest when it is at rest) becomes kinetic energy. Using multiple exposures, she was able to capture an object moving through space and time in a single image. With its emphasis on line and geometric shape, this photograph is both abstract and representational - a modernist experiment with the contradictory potential of photography itself. A model example of creative problem solving in scientific illustration, Abbott's photograph is aesthetically compelling and clearly legible as a visual representation of a complex phenomenon. Abbott believed that a photograph should serve as a "friendly interpreter" of scientific knowledge that makes it more broadly accessible. -Jessica D. Brier, Curator of Photography

DescriptionA black and white image of a ball and a string suspended and passing from right to left in stop motion in the shape of a half-moon arc.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu