The Vortoscope and the HP Photosmart R817 digicam, 03 November 2023

The Vortoscope and the HP Photosmart R817 digicam, 03 November 2023

The last time I ventured out was with the Vredeborch Felica and since then it has been rain, rain, rain. However, a few weeks ago I made myself a new, bigger, Vortoscope and took a brief dry spell yesterday to go out and test it.

As a reminder, a Vortoscope is a triangle of mirrors that when viewed through fracture an image. It was pioneered by the American artist Alvin Langdon Coburn in the early twentieth century as a part of the English Vorticist movement. Vorticisim, 'rejected landscapes and nudes in favour of a geometric style that was much more abstract' (https://boshamgallery.com/blog/28-what-is-a-vortograph-the-world-s-first-truly-abstract-photographs-were-made/) and the Vortoscope was Langdon Coburn's response to this. The name Vortoscope was coined by the poet Ezra Pound, a contemporary and friend of Alvin Langdon Coburn, and the image it produced as a Vortograph. 

Although I had originally intended to use the Agfa Clack with the Vortoscope, I had with me the HP Photosmart R817 digicam and used this as a test run instead. Quite simply the Vortoscope is held over the lens of the camera and the view is fractured and reflected within it, like a kaleidoscope. It works great with lights and straight lines, and the slightly enlarged surfaces meant that I could view the centre of an image and fracture the outside.

It worked particularly well with some stickers and graffiti, and the smiley face on an old wooden door was splendid. The Vortoscope is not the easiest device to carry around, but the results were certainly interesting. 

#Cubism, #Art, #Abstract, #Photography. #ModernArt, #Surrealism, #Cubist, #Vintage, #Vortoscope, #Vortograph, #Vortism,