Ben Rose, Negative Space

As he did in many of his other photographs, Rose created this work in one continuous shot. While slowly moving the camera laterally, he fired a sequence of shutter openings with strobe and flood lights on a predictable basis to create his photographic negative. The repeated edge definitions are made from the movement of the camera. As was often his practice, he hired a professional model to make this work. As for the imagery, Rose was a Philadelphian through and through and he was deeply inspired by the work of Marcel Duchamp in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In this instance, the famous Nude Descending a Staircase comes to mind. 

-Teddy Cavanagh, Woodmere Intern 2020