Detail of Book Damaged by Water
A close-up photograph captures the warped and rippled pages of a water-damaged book, its swollen fibers and undulating surface transformed into an abstract landscape of texture and shadow. Morell's gelatin silver print renders the destruction with striking intimacy, elevating the mundane deterioration of an everyday object into a meditation on fragility and the passage of time. The monochromatic tones heighten the tactile quality of the image, drawing attention to the sculptural beauty found within decay.
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print, mounted.
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
Important Photographs from the Collection of Dr. Anthony Terrana
April 2, 2013
Spotted works by Abelardo Morell
Artists in conversation
Karl Blossfeldt
German · b. 1865
Blossfeldt used close-up black and white photography to reveal the sculptural and abstract qualities hidden within ordinary organic forms, transforming natural textures into monumental studies of surface and structure much like Morell elevates the rippled pages of a damaged book.
Edward Weston
American · b. 1886
Weston's gelatin silver still life work consistently found abstract landscape-like qualities and tactile intimacy in everyday objects, using monochromatic tones to heighten surface texture and transform the mundane into meditations on form and time.
Aaron Siskind
American · b. 1903
Siskind photographed peeling surfaces, deteriorating walls, and decaying materials in close-up black and white compositions that transformed physical decay and undulating textures into abstract landscapes, directly paralleling Morell's approach to the damaged book's warped pages.
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