Livia
Maker
Frederick Sommer
(American, 1905 - 1999)
Date1948
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 7 3/8 × 9 1/4 in. (18.7 × 23.5 cm)
Sheet: 8 1/8 × 10 in. (20.6 × 25.4 cm)
Sheet: 8 1/8 × 10 in. (20.6 × 25.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Estate of Lester and Betty Guttman
Collections
Object number2014.751
Status
Not on viewFrederick Sommer worked in Arizona for more than fifty years, rarely photographing portraits. Yet when his friend introduced him to fresh-faced Lydia, pictured here as Livia, who lived across town in Prescott, Arizona, he made this striking image. Sommer brought a textural and weathered background to the sitting and placed it behind Lydia to contrast with her crisp white dress and clear, bright eyes. He also positioned Lydia on a platform so that she was eyelevel with the camera, but her intense gaze fixed on Sommer, who, at six-feet tall, towered above her behind the camera.
