Wynn Bullock was convinced that photography was the principal visual medium of his time, and used it to unveil the mysteries of the universe. While studying photography in Los Angeles in the 1920s he experimented with solarization and accidental darkroom effects. He was an avid reader, and became fascinated by the ideas of Alfred Korzybski. Bullock tried in his photographs to express the semanticist’s notion that human understanding of the world is limited by our senses, and our means of communication. This is one from a series of Bullock’s photographs organized around a central window, striving to combine two detailed images on one negative. The window functions as a portal between two dimensions in these metaphors for concealed realms beyond human experience.

from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)