Alma Lavenson
Self-Portrait

Self-Portrait

© Alma Lavenson Archive. All Rights Reserved.

Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
ArtistAmerican, 1897–1989
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Self-Portrait
Date1932
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 9 × 11 13/16 in. (22.9 × 30 cm)
Sheet: 11 × 13 15/16 in. (27.9 × 35.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mike and Mickey Marvins
Object number2015.635
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Special Collections
Object Type
Description

In 1932, seven San Francisco-based photographers, including Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, banded together to form Group f/64, named for the smallest aperture on a large-format camera, the setting that yielded the greatest depth of field. Alma Lavenson was among those invited to participate in the group’s first exhibition that November—a show that heralded a new aesthetic of sharply focused, carefully composed images, often contact-printed on glossy gelatin-silver paper for maximum clarity.

Lavenson’s Self-Portrait, made earlier that year, was a daring departure from her own earlier Pictorialist style and from the traditions of self-portraiture. Presenting herself almost as a hybrid creature, half human and half machine, she declared the central importance of straightforward camera aesthetics in her new, modern style of photography, leaving the painterly past behind.
Provenance Research Ongoing Exhibition History“A Photographer’s Collection: Gifts from Michael and Michele Marvins,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 4–July 5, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
verso top left edge in pencil[upside down]: TR 644-92
lower right below image in pencil: Alma Lavenson

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Second Hand Store—Sonora
Alma Lavenson
1940
Gelatin silver print
2002.1522
Union Oil Tanks
Alma Lavenson
1931
Gelatin silver print
83.1
cropped recto of print
Alma Davenport-Dailey
1970
Gelatin silver print
88.402.17
Untitled
Alma Davenport-Dailey
c. 1978
Dye diffusion transfer print
2002.862
Alma Davenport-Dailey
c. 1978
Dye diffusion transfer print
2002.856
Overall recto, cropped
Alma Thomas
1970
Acrylic on wove paper
2023.571
Overall recto, cropped
Alma Thomas
1970
Acrylic on wove paper
2023.570
Self portrait with Virginia Cigar / Self Portrait
František Drtikol
1912–1913
Gelatin silver print and bromoil print
2004.421.A,.B
[Self-Portraits, Portraits of Co-workers, Scenes of Sailing and Swimming]
Unknown
possibly 1930s
Album of gelatin silver prints
2020.137.61
Self Portrait with Portrait of Renata Adler
Richard Avedon
1969
Gelatin silver print
2023.1111
Self portrait at home with Bowknot necklace
Gay Block
1976, printed c.2000
Gelatin silver print
2022.36.173
Self portrait with Barry
Gay Block
1976, printed c. 2000
Gelatin silver print
2022.36.177