Photoworks, which he began to produce in the late 1940s, testify to Steinberg’s lifelong practice of crossing boundaries between media. These hybrid photo-drawings come in two forms: photographs (and occasionally old engravings) whose original subjects—furniture, appliances, street excavations, crumbled paper—take on new identities through the addition of drawn lines; and drawings on furniture, objects, sidewalks, or buildings, which were then photographed to record their new mutations.15 Steinberg created the first of these photoworks for the short-lived magazine Flair, where they appeared as inset booklets in two issues.16
Page from Flair, March 1950, p. 82.Untitled, 1950. Gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 in. Private collection. Reproduced in Flair, March 1950, p. 87.Woman on Tub, 1949. Gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 in. Private collection. Reproduced in Flair, March 1950, p. 95.Page from Flair, March 1950, p. 88.Chest of Drawers Cityscape, 1950. Gelatin silver print, 8 ¾ 6 7/8 in. The Saul Steinberg Foundation. Reproduced in Flair, September 1950, p. 81.Untitled, 1950. Gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 in. The Saul Steinberg Foundation.Car, 1953. Conté crayon over gelatin silver print, 10 ¾ x 13 ¾ in. Private collection.Excavation, 1951. Ink on gelatin silver print, 13 7/8 x 10 7/8 in. Private collection.Untitled, 1950. Gelatin silver print, 5 x 4 in. The Saul Steinberg Foundation.Untitled, 1951. Ink on gelatin silver print, 9 ½ x 5 ½ in. Dallas Museum of Art; Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation.Kitchen Street, 1954. Colored pencil, gouache and ink on gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Collection of Richard and Ronay Menschel.Third Avenue Photo (Junk Street). Ink on gelatin silver print, 9 ¾ x 7 3/8 in. Private collection.Downtown Building, 1952. Ink and collage on paper, 14 ½ x 22 in. The Art Institute of Chicago; Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation.
