Maquette, page 6 1935 - 1944

Nathan Lerner made this page of photographic maquettes in the 1930s, like a painter composing with shapes in collage. He’s pushing and pulling the tones, working with the flatness and depth of black and white photography. Look at how the image at the bottom plays with reflections, with the car’s dashboard and a mirror reflecting a man. In the background we see a couple embracing. The composition is layered, like a visual puzzle. The textures are very different - shiny metal, soft skin, the granular detail of the sea beyond. Then look at the photograph above: the person lying down, with their head back, facing the sun. It’s a simple composition but a charged one, full of lazy summer vibes and implied narratives. You see echoes of Moholy-Nagy in this piece, and maybe Man Ray. But really Lerner’s on his own trip, using the camera to capture not just images, but moments of visual poetry.