Vortoscope
>Alvin Langdon Coburn recalled that the Vortographs he created in January 1917, including this one, were the “first purely abstract photographs.”
>Of the tool used to create these images, Coburn wrote in his autobiography, “The instrument is composed of three mirrors fastened together in the form of a triangle, and resembling to a certain extent the Kaleidoscope—and I think many of us can remember the delight we experienced with this scientific toy. The mirrors acted as a prism splitting the image formed by the lens into segments.”
>The poet Ezra Pound, who had introduced Coburn to the short-lived London-based Vorticism movement, wrote, “The tool called vortoscope was invented late in 1916. Mr. Coburn had long desired to bring cubism or vorticism into photography. Only with the invention of a suitable instrument was this possible.”
>Of the tool used to create these images, Coburn wrote in his autobiography, “The instrument is composed of three mirrors fastened together in the form of a triangle, and resembling to a certain extent the Kaleidoscope—and I think many of us can remember the delight we experienced with this scientific toy. The mirrors acted as a prism splitting the image formed by the lens into segments.”
>The poet Ezra Pound, who had introduced Coburn to the short-lived London-based Vorticism movement, wrote, “The tool called vortoscope was invented late in 1916. Mr. Coburn had long desired to bring cubism or vorticism into photography. Only with the invention of a suitable instrument was this possible.”
