Light Abstraction 1941

This is ‘Light Abstraction’ by György Kepes. It’s a black and white photograph, and it's like Kepes is setting up a visual laboratory. He’s not capturing something, but creating something. Look at the stark contrast, those bold, graphic shapes. It feels very constructed, like a stage set for a play about perception. I'm drawn to the way the light interacts with the different patterns. The light doesn’t just illuminate, it sculpts, it defines the forms. It makes you wonder what these shapes actually are. Are they paper? Are they three-dimensional objects? That central spiral, it's almost hypnotic. It pulls you in, but then your eye bounces off to the grid or the radiating lines. It’s a push and pull, a visual game. It reminds me of Moholy-Nagy’s photograms, that same Bauhaus interest in light, shadow, and form. But Kepes brings this playful, almost theatrical sensibility. He reminds us that seeing isn't passive, it’s an active process of construction and interpretation.