PHOTOGRAPHS
Thomas, Lew
U.S. (1932 - )
Ruler
1975
Gelatin silver print
47 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. (120.7 x 14 cm) exposed image size; 47 3/4 x 5 3/4 x 1 5/16 in. (121.3 x 14.6 x 3.4 cm) frame size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.172

This work is part of a series called Photo + Objects, which includes pictures of everyday things like a clock, a sink, a bike, and a vacuum. The point of the artist’s investigation was not to represent the things themselves, however. Rather, Thomas employed photography as a system for exploring time and measurement. He pieced together multiple images of the subject matter into large constructions that suggest movement and spatial dimension. -- Label copy for Material and Document: Experiments in Photography during the 1970s, November 4, 2011, to February 4, 2012.