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Untitled

A work made of gelatin silver print.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver print.

Date:

1929/30

Artist:

Roger Parry
French, 1905–1977

About this artwork

Roger Parry began his photographic career in 1928 in the service of advertising and architectural design. To accompany a 1930 edition of poet Leon-Paul Fargue’s Banalité, the artist created a series of enigmatic photographic illustrations. The Banalité images work as a complement to Fargue’s Symbolist poetry, recasting a group of unrelated scenes into a cryptic sequence. Like this image of a locomotive, many of the illustrations are negative prints, cropped at dramatic angles; others include cameraless images (photograms), which Parry would have associated with the work of Man Ray. After meeting Parry in Paris, Julien Levy included the artist’s photographs in several exhibitions at his Manhattan galleries, including Surréalisme and Modern European Photography in 1932. In addition to purchasing the Banalité photographs, Levy acquired storyboards for a photographic series that Parry planned but never finalized, which indicated the artist’s intentions to continue exploring the photo-narrative as an effective art form.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Roger Parry

Title

Untitled

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1929–1930

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 20.9 × 15.6 cm (8 1/4 × 6 3/16 in.); Mount: 21.1 × 20.7 cm (8 5/16 × 8 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Julien Levy Collection, Gift of Jean Levy and the Estate of Julien Levy

Reference Number

1988.157.66

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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