ethereal ballet

A talented photographer, from 1935 to 1937 Brodovitch captured several ballet companies on a 35mm camera with slow exposure. This resulted in blurred images and high-contrast, grainy negatives exhibiting burnt-out areas of flare from the stage lighting. This sharply violated the then accepted conventions of good photography. The images were published in the 1945 photobook Ballet. Only a few hundred copies were ever printed, and most of them were gifted to the artist’s friends.

A page spread from Ballet photobook
A page spread from Ballet photobook
A page spread from Ballet photobook
A page spread from Ballet photobook
A page spread from Ballet photobook
A page spread from Ballet photobook
A page spread from Ballet photobook
A page spread from Ballet photobook

Page spreads from Ballet photobook designed by Alexey Brodovitch. Hard cover with dust jacket, 144 pages. 28.5 x 22.3 cm.

i learned from him [brodovitch] that if, when you look in your camera, you see an image you have ever seen before, don't click the shutter.

—hiro, fashion photographer

Alexey Brodovitch looking into camera, smoking a cigarette

Alexey Brodovitch. Photo by Benedict J. Fernandez. © 2006 Benedict J. Fernandez.

 

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