Eve and Shadow

About 1910, Constantin Brancusi started taking photographs of his sculptures to show to distant clients. He soon began using the pictures as a working aid, providing him with new ways to think about his art.  In the process, he produced an important body of photographs that document individual works as well as their installation in his studio, frequently in marvelous and unexpected juxtapositions with other sculptures. The images are highly subjective. In the most expressive ones, Brancusi transforms and reinterprets his artworks, often through inventive use of light and shadow. The power of his totemic wooden sculpture Adam and Eve is dramatically enhanced in this photograph by his isolation of Eve and her looming black shadow. Adam is eliminated from the picture, replaced by a smaller sculpture that balances the composition.