Vortographs
Photographer/Vorticist Alvin Langdon Coburn 1882–1966
The Vortograph : “the first completely abstract kind of photograph, composed of kaleidoscopic repetitions of forms achieved by photographing objects through a triangular arrangement of three mirrors”
In 1916, Coburn met Ezra Pound, who introduced him to the short-lived Vorticism movement in Britain. These new visual aesthetics intrigued Coburn and, provoked by his growing spiritual quest, he began to re-examine his photographic style. He responded by making a bold and distinctive portrait of Pound, showing three over-lapping images of differing sizes. Within a brief period he moved from this semi-representative image to a series of abstract images that are among the first completely non-representative photographs ever made.
To make these images Coburn invented a kaleidoscope-like instrument with three mirrors clamped together, which when fitted over the lens of the camera would reflect and fracture the image. Pound called this instrument a "Vortescope" and the resulting photographs "Vortographs". He made only about 18 different Vortographs, taken over a period of just one month, yet they remain among the most striking images in early 20th century photography.
"Why should not the camera throw off the shackles of conventional representation?"
- Alvin Langdon Coburn
"Why, I ask you earnestly, need we go on making commonplace little exposures that may be sorted into groups of landscapes, portraits and figure studies? Think of the joy of doing something which it would be impossible to tell which was top and which was the bottom!… I do not think we have begun even to realize the possibilities of the camera."
— Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882–1966)
