A. Aubrey Bodine's Photographic Legacy Preserved Through Extensive Online Archive
The extensive online archive of A. Aubrey Bodine's work makes accessible over 6,000 photographs from his 47-year career, preserving the legacy of a photographer regarded as one of the finest pictorialists of the twentieth century.
The photographic legacy of A. Aubrey Bodine, regarded in photographic circles worldwide as one of the finest pictorialists of the twentieth century, continues to be accessible through an extensive online archive. Bodine's career spanned 47 years, beginning in 1923 when he started covering stories for the Baltimore Sunday Sun, and his work has been exhibited in hundreds of prestigious shows and scores of museums, winning numerous awards against top competition.
Bodine traveled extensively throughout Maryland, creating remarkable documentary pictures of various occupations and activities. What set his work apart was the exceptional quality of these documentary images, often featuring artistic design and lighting effects that far exceeded the usual standards of newspaper photography. His approach to photography was fundamentally creative, viewing the camera and darkroom equipment as tools similar to a painter's brush or sculptor's chisel.
The photographer's artistic philosophy centered on the belief that photography could be a creative discipline, leading him to study art principles at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Bodine was known for his exceptional craftsmanship and constant experimentation with photographic tools. Some of his best compositions were created directly in the camera's viewfinder, while others involved extensive darkroom work including dye application, intensifiers, pencil marking, and even scraping negatives to achieve his desired effects.
Bodine's technical alterations of natural scenes, including photographically adding clouds and other elaborate manipulations, were justified by his artistic rationale. Like painters working from models, he selected features that suited his sense of mood, proportion, and design. This approach reflected his fundamental belief that "he did not take a picture, he made a picture," emphasizing the final image over the process of creation.
More than 6,000 photographs spanning Bodine's entire career are now available for viewing on the website at https://www.aaubreybodine.com. These images can be ordered as reprints and note cards through the same platform. For those seeking deeper insight into Bodine's life and work, the full text of his biography, "A Legend In His Time," written shortly after his 1970 death by his editor and closest friend Harold A. Williams, is also available on the website at https://www.aaubreybodine.com.
The preservation and accessibility of Bodine's work through digital means ensures that future generations can study and appreciate the contributions of this influential twentieth-century photographer. His innovative techniques and artistic approach to photography continue to inspire contemporary photographers and art enthusiasts, while the comprehensive online archive serves as an important resource for photographic historians and collectors interested in pictorialist photography and documentary work from the mid-twentieth century.