Photogenic drawing
(c. 1940)
Medium
gelatin silver photograph
Measurements
23.7 × 18.1 cm (image and sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2024
Gallery location
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International
About this work
For more than two decades, Lotte Jacobi created what she described as ‘photogenics’. These enigmatic, highly expressive images were produced without a camera, through an experimental process involving the exposure of photographic paper to a light that was moved throughout the darkroom. The process often incorporated materials such as glass, cellophane and celluloid, and the resulting images seem almost spawned organically. In this work, Jacobi has combined an abstract ‘photogenic’ image with a pair of hovered hands gently cupping a flower in bloom.