One of the most acclaimed commercial photographers of the early 20th century, Paul Outerbridge is best known for the acute formalism of his photographs. He made this image of a crankshaft for an advertisement for the Marmon Motor Car Company, whose cars were known at the time both for advanced engineering and high style. Here Outerbridge combined the two; far from describing function, the photograph emphasizes the sculptural nature of new machinery and embodies his approach of using “photography purely as a means toward raising advertising to a higher artistic level.” Outerbridge moved easily between the worlds of commerce and art, exhibiting regularly in galleries starting in 1923. Avant-garde dealer Julien Levy, from whose collection this photograph came, exhibited his work in 1932.
