László Moholy-Nagy

Though photography may be an a posteriori medium by nature, László Moholy-Nagy had a very a priori notion of what comprises a good photograph—one shared by many of his contemporaries. It had to be distinctly photographic, he felt, an exploration and exploitation of the technical possibilities inherent in various kinds of picture-making processes—and the result, generally speaking, were photographs with geometric, Constructivist compositions. In his camera-made works, Moholy-Nagy demonstrated how the worm’s and the bird’s eye view can transform a European metropolis into an aggregate of plunging lines, startling trapezoids, and audacious patterns. In Decorating Work (Switzerland), 1925, he depicts the side of a building from a precipitously close and low vantage point. Windows become dark polyhedrons penetrating the smooth, light surface of the building, and a worker, perched on nothing

— Keith Seward