Marmon Crankshaft

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.