Francis Bruguière (American, 1879-1945)

In 1905, Bruguière became friends with Frank Eugene and Alfred Stieglitz and became a nominal Photo-Secessionist. A year later, he opened a portrait studio in San Francisco, where he was born, but returned to New York in 1919, to work for Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and the New York Theatre Guild. In 1923, Bruguière began to photograph shaped or cut-paper designs, dramatically lit to create patterns and movement in abstract forms of light and shadow. He moved to London in 1928 and produced the first British abstract film, Light Rhythm. Influenced by Synchromist paintings, he continued to work with cut-paper abstractions until 1937.
- Jill Alikas St. Thomas

Selected Bibliography
Coke, Van Deren, and Du Pont, Diana C. Photography A Facet of Modernism, New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1986.

Yates, Steve and Beaumont Newhall. Proto-Modern Photography. Santa Fe: Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, 1992.

Enyeart,James, Bruguiere: His Photographs and His Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.

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