MoyerC+1RA

1RA Draft

Tossed Cats 1942

2/13 Rhetor: clearly, as a photographer primarily of dance, she was extremely interested in motion, movement and action. Here, the act of tossing the cats causes the motion of them in the air, and they act to right themselves so as to land proverbially on their feet. More than a few of Barbra Morgan's photographs capture subjects in midair. Text: The two cats are in the process of righting themselves in midair, acting instinctively regardless of the studio setting and being photographed. Audience: This particular picture is eye-catching among the rest of Barbra Morgan's simply because of subject. It is one of few published pictures she took of animals, but in many ways it still lines up closely with the rest of her work, detailing motion in midair as many of her dance pictures do. These pictures are entrancing because they encourage the mind's eye to finish the action, extrapolating from the one frozen instant of the image through until the subject is once more stable on the ground and yet the actual image remains a static symbol of the movement in progress.

Merce Cunningham, Totem Ancestor, 1942

Rhetor: Here is a picture from one of Barbra Morgan's dance series, where she catches a quintessential moment in the dance Totem Ancestor. Again the subject, the dancer Merce Cunningham, is caught midair, halfway through the act of jumping. Text: Merce Cunningham is caught by the camera midair, his legs folded under him, his hands cupped upward, his head thrown back. the lines of the picture are clean, drawn from the position of his body and the lines on his outfit, and the lighting intentionally shadows him emphasizing his upturned face. The backdrop is lit and shaded in such a way as to imply the sky and the picture was taken so that the floor is not visible and the dancer is closer to the top of the frame than the bottom, rendering it impossible to know just how high above the ground the dancer is at the moment of the photo. Audience: unlike the cats, where the finish of the action is quite clear, this picture catches the minds eye by being less straight forward. What came before and after this instant is mysterious enough that the moment remains in isolation. Partly by that suspension in the moment, and partly by the pose adopted by Cunningham the photo suggests a deep joy, ecstasy even. His hands, feet and face are all turned upward, towards the strongest light source and the illusion is that of leaping joyously in a sun-drenched field somewhere. Martha Graham, American Document, 1938 Rhetor: Another dance picture, this image has three subjects mid leap. Text: three dancers are synchronized in their movements, leaping away from each other. Their poses seem casual, save that they are carefully matched, arms outstretched, one leg tucked back and the other elegantly pointed ground ward. They are wearing matching white (or nearly white) dresses with black accents at the waist and elbow. Their pulled back dark hair streams behind them, adding to the sensation of motion and balancing the brightness of their dresses. Audience: another picture taken mid-leap, the dancers in this photo portray an air of carefree abandon, their white dresses suggesting innocence and their carefully choreographed pose nonetheless evoking children skipping in the summer, an illusion that the expressions on their faces do nothing to dispel. their raised leading arms balance their leading legs with a pleasing symmetry, and like the previous pictures, the cats and Merce Cunningham's Totem Ancestor, the eye focuses on the inherent movement of the picture. Like the cats, here the mind seeks to finish the action, playing the moment forward until the dancers' toes touch ground.

(http://www.scottnicholsgallery.com/artists/barbara-morgan/)