Anne Brigman
The Dying Cedar1906
platinum print
9 1/4 x 6 3/8 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
With her upraised arms and tilted wrist, the draped nude figure mimics the cedar’s twisted form. Californian Anne Brigman was a member of the Photo Secession, a group of photographers who believed that photographs could be art only when they stepped away from literal description of fact. Brigman’s pictures were carefully posed and most were printed using hand-applied emulsions such as platinum.
