Hammer in bloom
(Le marteau en fleurs)
(1940s)
Medium
gelatin silver photograph
Measurements
39.1 × 28.8 cm (image) 40.2 × 30.3 cm (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2024
© Laure Albin Guillot / Collections Roger-Viollet
Gallery location
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International
About this work
Highly regarded in 1930s and 1940s French photography circles, Laure Albin Guillot’s work straddles Pictorialism and New Photography, blending soft, artistic photography with modern, sharp imagery. Albin Guillot was known for her technical mastery. Her wide-ranging practice spanned portraiture, nudes, advertising, landscapes, still lifes, fashion photography and images taken through a microscope. In this photograph, a clenched fist holds a hammer adorned with flowers, set against the receding smokestacks of a factory. Created around 1940, just after the beginning of the Second World War, the image may express solidarity with industrial workers, while the flowers, a poetic inclusion, could be read as a symbol of peace amid war.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
France
Inscription
inscribed in pencil on reverse u.l.: 13756
Accession Number
2024.29
Department
International Photography