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Image

Aaron Siskind

Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation 99

Description

Maker

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

Title

Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation 99
Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation

Year

1961

Medium

  • gelatin silver print

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • gelatin silver print

Materials

silver print

Dimensions

Mount: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Aaron Siskind

Object Number

73.011.10

Type

  • Photographs

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

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

Label copy

“The thing that stimulated me most was in my mind there was this title, which happened to me very rarely, “the pleasures and terrors of levitation.” And so I began working on that. That helped me determine a number of things, you know, that the picture had to be square, that the ground had to be negative, no clouds and that kind of stuff, and the figure itself was not to have too much detail. Those were the determinations I made. In order to get that kind of a picture of the kids diving in the lake, I had to be there at a certain time so that sun was not too far in the west and it would hit them. And, I would get a fully delineated figure. I have to be there on a day when there were a lot of people, especially young people there who were horsing around, you see, ‘cause then things happened. A guy came up there and did a perfect swan dive, it didn’t interest me at all.” Siskind in taped conversation with Harry Callahan and David Travis at Art Institute of Chicago, May 27, 1982.

Related Objects

Related Objects

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Aaron Siskind

Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation

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Tombstone

Aaron Siskind (American, 1903-1991)
Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation 99; Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation, 1961
Gelatin silver print
Mount: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 inches)
Gift of Aaron Siskind 73.011.10

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