Light Drawing, Herbert Matter, c. 1943

gelatin silver print, h 584mm × w 494mm More details
© Estate of Herbert Matter, courtesy of Gitterman Gallery

The camera goes further than the human eye, wrote the graphic designer and photographer Herbert Matter in 1944. In that year this light drawing by him was featured on the cover of the magazine Arts & Architecture. He ‘drew’ in the air with a source of light. While the eye can only partly follow the result, the camera registers the entire movement and records it as an abstract pattern