In
1969, five years after moving from his native Germany to New York City, Hans
Breder accepted a teaching post at the University of Iowa, founding their
Intermedia Arts program in which a variety of media were brought together with
boundaries blurred. In a series that merged sculpture, performance, and
photography, Breder posed his models holding polished steel mirrors that masked
parts of their bodies and doubled other parts. The results echoed the works of
earlier photographers who used photography to transform the body, such as Hans
Bellmer, Bill Brandt, and André Kertész—resonances that Breder would certainly
have recognized.