Published essay in art exhibition catalogue
Josef Breitenbach, American, born Germany, 1896-1984
Construction Worker [Beauty at Work], Bombay, India, 1960
Gelatin silver print
Josef Breitenbach’s Construction Worker [Beauty at Work], Bombay, India was created in 1960 as part of a documentary project on Asian women for the United Nations Children’s Fund[1]. A later work in the artist’s career, Beauty at Work[2] departs from Breitenbach’s earlier, more avant-garde style[3]. Most famous for his participation in the Surrealistic movement, Breitenbach experimented with darkroom manipulation and abstract visual effects before dedicating himself to UNICEF relief efforts in the 1950s[4]. Beauty at Work thus straddles an uncomfortable line between ethnographic record and art object. Created by a western artist working for a humanitarian organization in the developing east, Beauty at Work captures the tensions between artist, subject, and the cultures each represents. The photograph depicts a young, Indian woman in the midst of her daily work, caught at a moment of casual poise. Given the carefully manipulated nature of Breitenbach’s early work, we must ask: how constructed is this image?
Beauty at Work exudes a palpable sense of feminine elegance and suggests the natural grace of the female body in motion. The figure’s left leg advances forward, slightly blurred in a whisper of movement. She glances down in thought or concentration. Her right arm reaches up to her basket, a gesture toward balance and visual symmetry. Her statuesque form and swung-hip stance recall the contrapposto, a pose typical of classical Greek sculpture. The folds and curves of the woman’s sari echo ancient Roman drapery and further connect her to European ideals. She is both the unnamed subject of a documentary photograph and the romanticized goddess of labor. Breitenbach was fascinated with sculpture and seems to have imposed his personal aesthetic views on this ostensibly factual image. Art historian Larisa Dryansky writes that “statues to Breitenbach were not made of stone but were vehicles of passion and emotion equivalent to the beautiful nude bodies he never tired of capturing” in his early career[5]. Thus, although Breitenbach may have sought to document reality, his artistic sensibility nevertheless contributes to the composition and ideological implications of Beauty at Work.
This photograph embodies the tension between accurate portrayal and romanticized archetype. In reference to Breitenbach’s Women of Asia collection, Spurgeon M. Keeny[6] comments that the viewer will see the average woman “not posed, but caught perhaps in a pause of her work. (She is nearly always working.)…You’ll notice her costume of course, but most of all you’ll notice her as a person”[7]. Keeny interprets Breitenbach’s photography as primarily concerned with the arresting individuality of his subjects amidst mundane daily existence. Important to that daily existence, however, is the reality of labor. Beauty at Work neither highlights the unique characteristics of its figure nor the value of her work. With his title, Breitenbach foregrounds the constructed nature of his photograph. Although a documentary portrait, the image idealizes and aestheticizes the body of the female laborer. Yet, we may also read Beauty at Work as a meta-commentary on the artistic process. In many ways, the title Beauty at Work undermines any attempt to describe this work as ‘straight’ photography. As much as the photograph depicts the real world, it also illustrates the ongoing construction and mediation of the visual subject.
[1] Spurgeon M. Keeny, introduction to Women of Asia, by Josef Breitenbach (New York: John Day Company, 1968), 7.
[2] Here and below I abbreviate Construction Worker [Beauty at Work], Bombay, India to Beauty at Work because “Construction Worker” does not appear in the photograph’s title in Breitenbach’s 1968 publication, Women of Asia.
[3] Donald Kuspit, Donald. “Josef Breitenbach.” ArtForum International 31, no. 8 (1993): 97.
[4] Barry Didcock, “bach to life: Josef Breitenbach knew he would find fame after death.” The Sunday Herald, February 25, 2001.
[5] Larisa Dryansky, “Josef Breitenbach: Manifest Beauty,” Manifesto by Josef Breitenbach (Portland: Nazraeli Press, 2008), ii.
[6]Keeny, former UNCIEF director for Asia, penned the introduction to Breitenbach’s photographic monograph, Women of Asia
[7] Spurgeon M. Keeny, introduction to Women of Asia, by Josef Breitenbach (New York: John Day Company, 1968), 7.
Construction Worker [Beauty at Work], Bombay, India, 1960
Gelatin silver print
Josef Breitenbach’s Construction Worker [Beauty at Work], Bombay, India was created in 1960 as part of a documentary project on Asian women for the United Nations Children’s Fund[1]. A later work in the artist’s career, Beauty at Work[2] departs from Breitenbach’s earlier, more avant-garde style[3]. Most famous for his participation in the Surrealistic movement, Breitenbach experimented with darkroom manipulation and abstract visual effects before dedicating himself to UNICEF relief efforts in the 1950s[4]. Beauty at Work thus straddles an uncomfortable line between ethnographic record and art object. Created by a western artist working for a humanitarian organization in the developing east, Beauty at Work captures the tensions between artist, subject, and the cultures each represents. The photograph depicts a young, Indian woman in the midst of her daily work, caught at a moment of casual poise. Given the carefully manipulated nature of Breitenbach’s early work, we must ask: how constructed is this image?
Beauty at Work exudes a palpable sense of feminine elegance and suggests the natural grace of the female body in motion. The figure’s left leg advances forward, slightly blurred in a whisper of movement. She glances down in thought or concentration. Her right arm reaches up to her basket, a gesture toward balance and visual symmetry. Her statuesque form and swung-hip stance recall the contrapposto, a pose typical of classical Greek sculpture. The folds and curves of the woman’s sari echo ancient Roman drapery and further connect her to European ideals. She is both the unnamed subject of a documentary photograph and the romanticized goddess of labor. Breitenbach was fascinated with sculpture and seems to have imposed his personal aesthetic views on this ostensibly factual image. Art historian Larisa Dryansky writes that “statues to Breitenbach were not made of stone but were vehicles of passion and emotion equivalent to the beautiful nude bodies he never tired of capturing” in his early career[5]. Thus, although Breitenbach may have sought to document reality, his artistic sensibility nevertheless contributes to the composition and ideological implications of Beauty at Work.
This photograph embodies the tension between accurate portrayal and romanticized archetype. In reference to Breitenbach’s Women of Asia collection, Spurgeon M. Keeny[6] comments that the viewer will see the average woman “not posed, but caught perhaps in a pause of her work. (She is nearly always working.)…You’ll notice her costume of course, but most of all you’ll notice her as a person”[7]. Keeny interprets Breitenbach’s photography as primarily concerned with the arresting individuality of his subjects amidst mundane daily existence. Important to that daily existence, however, is the reality of labor. Beauty at Work neither highlights the unique characteristics of its figure nor the value of her work. With his title, Breitenbach foregrounds the constructed nature of his photograph. Although a documentary portrait, the image idealizes and aestheticizes the body of the female laborer. Yet, we may also read Beauty at Work as a meta-commentary on the artistic process. In many ways, the title Beauty at Work undermines any attempt to describe this work as ‘straight’ photography. As much as the photograph depicts the real world, it also illustrates the ongoing construction and mediation of the visual subject.
[1] Spurgeon M. Keeny, introduction to Women of Asia, by Josef Breitenbach (New York: John Day Company, 1968), 7.
[2] Here and below I abbreviate Construction Worker [Beauty at Work], Bombay, India to Beauty at Work because “Construction Worker” does not appear in the photograph’s title in Breitenbach’s 1968 publication, Women of Asia.
[3] Donald Kuspit, Donald. “Josef Breitenbach.” ArtForum International 31, no. 8 (1993): 97.
[4] Barry Didcock, “bach to life: Josef Breitenbach knew he would find fame after death.” The Sunday Herald, February 25, 2001.
[5] Larisa Dryansky, “Josef Breitenbach: Manifest Beauty,” Manifesto by Josef Breitenbach (Portland: Nazraeli Press, 2008), ii.
[6]Keeny, former UNCIEF director for Asia, penned the introduction to Breitenbach’s photographic monograph, Women of Asia
[7] Spurgeon M. Keeny, introduction to Women of Asia, by Josef Breitenbach (New York: John Day Company, 1968), 7.