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Bananas for Moholy-Nagy is an illustration of part of a short essay by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy that Patterson Beckwith was handing out regularly to his students. The 1936 essay called "Photography: A New Instrument of Vision" is partly about the technology of photography and how it allows us to see the world in ways that were previously impossible.  It also posits the medium as a new, extra, or third, eye for humankind.  Beckwith was interested in a section of the essay called "The Eight Varieties of Photographic Vision". This is a list that sets out, very simply, just what it was possible to do with the materials. Moholy starts with photograms, moves on through very long and short exposures, infrared photography, X-rays - it's classic modernist thought, wonderfully articulated, presented in the most concrete way. 

Initially conceived and presented as an exhibition, Beckwith knew he immediately wanted to make a book out of it - it looked like a book on the wall. Reconceived in collaboration with Los Angeles based designer Gina Clyne, the publication includes a thoughtful essay by artist Alex Klein and a reprint of the original Moholy-Nagy text.

 Published by the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

-  Softbound
-  Artist’s book, edition of 1000
-  28 pages, 11 color illustrations
-  9 ½ x 5 ½ inches
-  2010