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Aaron Siskind

Martha's Vineyard 114B

Maker

Aaron Siskind (American, 1903-1991), (RISD Faculty 1971-1976, Photography)

Title

Martha's Vineyard 114B

Year

1954

Medium

  • gelatin silver print

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • gelatin silver print

Materials

silver print

Dimensions

Image: 34.8 x 42.1 cm (13 11/16 x 16 9/16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mr. Robert B. Menschel

Object Number

77.145.21

Type

  • Photographs

Publications

  • Books

America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now

Exhibition History

America in View
Landscape Photography 1865 to Now
Sep 21, 2012 – Jan 13, 2013

Label copy

In Martha’s Vineyard 114B, Aaron Siskind focuses on two small rocks nestled in a stone wall. As Siskind explained, he “began to feel the importance of how

these rocks hovered over each other, touched each other, pushed against each other.” He likened this contiguity to family relationships, especially that between mother and child. He believed that the pair of rocks pictured in the photograph would-consciously or not-evoke emotions in the viewer, and that these emotions were both deep-seated and universal. In his depiction of the landscape, he found metaphors for what he called “human drama.”

Aaron Siskind
From Chicago to Providence, 1951-1991
Oct 10, 2003 – Jan 11, 2004

Label copy

“One day when I was shooting I began to think...[of] the way these rocks shelter other rocks, how they pressed on each other and I began to feel the pressures and the relationships. I began to think about a family I was very close to and the relationship between the parents and the children....And somehow thinking of that helped me resolve a lot of problems with the formations of the rocks....It seems far fetched, and no one would ever think of it, but it was that thinking that enabled me to take these pictures.”

Siskind, from transcript of Judith Wechsler’s film, Aaron Siskind: Making Pictures, 1991.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Aaron Siskind (American, 1903-1991)
Martha's Vineyard 114B, 1954
Gelatin silver print
Image: 34.8 x 42.1 cm (13 11/16 x 16 9/16 inches)
Gift of Mr. Robert B. Menschel 77.145.21

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

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