Photographers Studio

Edmond Casarella

The late 1940s was a time of discovery for Edmond Casarella, who had been studying under Gabor Peterdi since his enrollment at the Brooklyn Museum School in 1949. He would develop his noted paper relief printing technique in 1948 and would show his work at the Laurel Gallery in 1949, steadily gaining critical acclaim for his angular, often explosive abstract expressionist works.

Here is a rare smaller format etching, somewhat more subdued than that which he became known for, but nonetheless a nod to the young artist's eye for composition. A collections of thin, precarious bits of photography equipment - shelves, tripods, a box light - are clustered together in the center in a series of thin white lines set against pitch black ink. He manages to portray depth as well as a suggestion of impending action, as if setting a stage.