Artwork Page for Reflection

Details / Information for Reflection

Reflection

1938, printed later

Ellen Auerbach

(American, 1906–2004)
Culture
America
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
Paper: 20.3 x 25.4 cm (8 x 10 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Joan Dowling 2022.309
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Reflections are an important motif in the art of Surrealism.

Description

In 1937, photographer Ellen Auerbach and her husband emigrated to the United States to flee Nazi persecution and threat of war in Europe. With a surrealistic use of dreamlike imagery, Auerbach arranges this picture so that her husband’s reflection falls onto window of a store in New York selling military uniforms. Was this a prefiguration of the coming World War? In October 1938, German troops invaded the Sudentenland; we do not know if this image was made before or after that event.
A vertically oriented black-and-white photograph captures a window display featuring two uniforms. On our left, a light-toned jacket with a leather belt and rounded helmet sits on a mannequin. To the right, a darker jacket displays metal buttons and badges. Superimposed over the center is a translucent reflection of a man in a flat cap and suit. Faint horizontal lines of a street and sidewalk appear reflected at the bottom.

Reflection

1938, printed later

Ellen Auerbach

(American, 1906–2004)
America

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