Port of Ghent: Fourth Section, Regular Services
To make these dynamic views of the Port of Ghent, Nikolai Kossikoff took an acrobatic approach, scaling ships and machinery with a cumbersome view camera in tow. As he recalled in his autobiography, "It was a strange experience when the crane I was on started to swing to the right, as if it was trying to shake me off! But I loved the sport and was fascinated by the result…"
Such risks paid off, yielding oblique perspectives that dramatize the activity of the shipyard. They appear here cut and pasted into a maquette for a 1935 annual report about the harbor. Arranged into sequence and integrated with text, Kossikoff’s photographs illustrate the movement of freight and laborers, for a publication circulated among business executives and layman investors. The 1935 report was of particular importance, coinciding with a transportation-themed international expo in Brussels, as well as a planned dock expansion project poised to increase the port’s international traffic.
Kossikoff’s maquettes argue persuasively for the importance of the port, synthesizing a range of relevant experience; the Kharkiv-born artist first studied engineering, and his pictures reflect a specialist’s eye. Fleeing the Russian Revolution in 1917, he traveled to North Africa and then Paris before settling in Ghent, finding intermittent work as a manual laborer and later as a painter. As he took up professional photography, he synthesized encounters with the Parisian avant-garde with the hard-edged experiments then emerging from the Soviet Union. His rich, graphic prints transcend their illustrative role, harnessing the raw energy of the industrial worksite.
Such risks paid off, yielding oblique perspectives that dramatize the activity of the shipyard. They appear here cut and pasted into a maquette for a 1935 annual report about the harbor. Arranged into sequence and integrated with text, Kossikoff’s photographs illustrate the movement of freight and laborers, for a publication circulated among business executives and layman investors. The 1935 report was of particular importance, coinciding with a transportation-themed international expo in Brussels, as well as a planned dock expansion project poised to increase the port’s international traffic.
Kossikoff’s maquettes argue persuasively for the importance of the port, synthesizing a range of relevant experience; the Kharkiv-born artist first studied engineering, and his pictures reflect a specialist’s eye. Fleeing the Russian Revolution in 1917, he traveled to North Africa and then Paris before settling in Ghent, finding intermittent work as a manual laborer and later as a painter. As he took up professional photography, he synthesized encounters with the Parisian avant-garde with the hard-edged experiments then emerging from the Soviet Union. His rich, graphic prints transcend their illustrative role, harnessing the raw energy of the industrial worksite.
Artwork Details
- Title: Port of Ghent: Fourth Section, Regular Services
- Artist: Nikolai Kossikoff (Russian, 1898–1975)
- Date: ca. 1935
- Medium: Gelatin silver prints with applied media
- Dimensions: Image: Various; from 1 1/2 × 1 1/2 in. (3.8 × 3.8 cm) to 4 11/16 × 3 3/8 in. (11.9 × 8.5 cm), each
Mount: 8 3/4 in. × 7 in. (22.2 × 17.8 cm) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Funds from various donors, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.196
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Nikolai Kossikoff
ca. 1935
Nikolai Kossikoff
ca. 1935
El Lissitzky
ca. 1926
Alexander Rodchenko
1935
Returned to lender
Elizaveta Ignatovich
1930s
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.