Typical of the aesthetics and subject matter of
Pictorialists, misty scenes of nudes comprised Bru-
guiere’s early work. In 1915, Bruguiere and the Bay
Area Photo-Secessionist Anne Brigman curated the
photography section of the Panama-Pacific Exposi-
tion in San Francisco. It was not shown in the Palace
of Fine Arts, where one could see Impressionist and
Post-Impressionist masters, leading his fellow
Photo-Secessionists to boycott. Despite becoming
a Photo-Secessionist in 1905, Bruguiere remained on the outskirts of the movement geographically and philosophically, allying himself with more minor members. He exhibited only once at the Photo-Secession gallery ‘‘291’’ in New York and contributed only one photograph to its journal, Camera Work—one issue before Stieglitz stopped its production in 1917. Bruguiere moved to New York in 1919 and im-
mediately began to investigate a more ‘‘modern’’
aesthetic. There he opened a studio and began pho-
tographing forVogue,Harper’s Bazaar, andVanity
Fair. Bruguiere also engrossed himself in the theatre, becoming the official photographer for the New York Theatre Guild (1919–1927). It was during a photography session forHarper’s Bazaarthat he met Rosalinde Fuller, the British actress who would become his model and mistress for the rest of his life. In 1923, Bruguiere discovered Sebastian Droste,
a young German dancer, and began a daring film
project titledThe Way. Droste and Fuller were the
sole actors in this drama, an early example of sur-
realistic leanings in America. Scenes ofThe Way
included jarring multiple exposures, ‘‘film-noir-
esque’’ lighting, and eerie heavy makeup. Bruguiere intendedThe Wayto concern ‘‘(the) thoughts if people who imagine rather than act realities. The main idea is that of a man who seeks happiness. From the beginning of his Pilgrimage to the end, he lives in a world of dreams.’’ Unfortunately, Droste died in 1925 and the film was never finished; it survives only in Bruguiere’s posed still photographs.
Using techniques developed to light the stage,
Bruguiere began to explore issues of time and space by photographing cut paper. Although Bruguiere’s
experiments recall cubist interests in abstract form,
his primary goal was to allude to motion. This theme
was further developed when he photographed Tho-
mas Wilfred’s ‘‘color organ,’’ or clavilux, in 1921.
An outgrowth of an interest in ‘‘synaesthesia,’’ or
the crossing of the senses, color organs allowed peo-
ple to ‘‘see’’ compositions of light from a keyboard.
Bruguie`re saw in these performances a popular turn-
of-the-century notion—the fourth dimension. He
wrote: ‘‘that is the effect I have long wanted to
give. The effect of movement in the eye of the
beholder, though the object itself was absolutely
stationary when photographed.’’
In 1928, Bruguie`re moved to London and be-
came acquainted with two men with whom he
would later collaborate: critic Oswell Blakeston
and graphic designer E. McKnight Kauffer. Bru-
guie`re produced several books in which photo-
graphs were integrated with, and sometimes stood
in for, text: Lancelot Sieveking’sBeyond this Point
(1929) and Blakeston’sFew Are Chosen (1931).
With Kauffer, Bruguie`re created novel advertise-
ments that combined photographs, text, and sur-
realistic imagery for Shell Oil, the British Postal
Service, and Charnaux Corset Company.
Perhaps the epitome of Bruguie`re’s blending of
various media can be seen in his collaboration with
Blakeston on England’s first abstract film,Light
Rhythms (1930). This film exists today only in
description and notation as the original was
destroyed in World War II. Arranged into move-
ments and accompanied by a piano score, Bru-
guie`re’s cut paper abstractions were lit by moving
lights in pre-arranged sequences. In later investi-
gations into cinematic effects, Bruguie`re photo-
graphed New York buildings at severe angles for
a never-finished film he dubbedPseudomorphic.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Bruguie`re occupied
himself with further variations on photographic
processes, including solarization and the cliche ́-
verre. Both of these processes do not necessarily
rely on an object or even a camera to produce
their effects. The strange almost aura-like results
of solarization, popularized by Man Ray in the
1920s, are created by exposing a print to light dur-
ing the development process and engage chance, a
topic of interest to the Surrealists.
In 1937, Bruguie`re was commissioned to design
the entrance to the British Pavilion at the Paris
Exposition, covering the 50-foot-high walls with
large photomurals. Shortly after the exposition,
Bruguie`re moved to the country to devote time to
painting. Due to poor health, he returned to Lon-
don where he began an unfinished autobiography.
Before his death in 1945, Bruguie`re explored C. G.
Jung, mandalas, and Eastern philosophies. His
multi-disciplinary acumen—ranging from theater,
music, film, to graphic design—prefigured a type of
artistic activity that was to become more common
later in the century, especially with the artists of the
postmodern era. His legacy, however, can be seen
in the abstract work of later photographers such as
Frederick Sommer and Carl Chiarenza.LESLIEK. Brown
BRUGUIE`RE, FRANCIS JOSEPH