Construct III-B 1980

Barbara Kasten made this photograph, Construct III-B, and it looks like she made it using coloured backdrops, mirrors, and geometric forms. I can just imagine her setting up this installation and then circling around it with her camera, trying to capture this really fleeting, temporary, spatial construction from the perfect angle. In some ways, this approach is not unlike painting. What Kasten is doing here reminds me of the work of painters such as László Moholy-Nagy or El Lissitzky, who also built temporary constructions, but these were for the purpose of photographing them. She's making a kind of painting, but with objects and light. I wonder how many photographs she took before she got to this one? Each photo probably revealed something new to her. I am curious to know what the others looked like, and what she learned from making them. Photography is a medium which embraces accident and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings and meanings.