Geraldo de Barros pushed photography to its limits. This image’s network of pale lines offers few clues to its real-world subject. Instead it hovers at the very edge of visibility, inviting viewers to contemplate the subtle range of gradations between white and palest gray.

A key figure in Brazilian modern art, Geraldo de Barros worked across the fields of painting, photography, and graphic and industrial design. His approach to photography resonated with a growing abstract art movement in Brazil: he employed multiple exposures, drew and etched on negatives, and reassembled fragments of negatives into new compositions.