Maquette, page 8 1935 - 1944

This maquette by Nathan Lerner layers images, creating new ways of seeing. It’s a gelatin silver print, with photography’s greyscale highlighting the geometry in both images. Look at the top image, with the looming silhouette of the ferris wheel against the sky; a complex web of lines creating different shapes, obscuring and revealing what lies beneath. And then below, a crowd of people viewed through what looks like a fence. There’s a figure climbing over the barrier, their legs suspended in mid-air, and another figure next to them, still behind the bars. It reminds me of Moholy-Nagy’s photograms, or even some of the more experimental photography being made today. It's all about process, of experimentation, and pushing at the edges of the medium. I wonder, what other combinations did Lerner try? What did he leave out? It shows us that art is a conversation and exchange of ideas, constantly embracing new interpretations.