The essence of New Vision photography is pointedly expressed in this picture, commonly known as The Constructor, which puts the act of seeing at center stage. Lissitzky's hand, holding a compass, is superimposed on a shot of his head that explicitly highlights his eye: insight, it expresses, is passed through the eye and transmitted to the hand, and through it to the tools of production. Devised from six different exposures, the picture merges Lissitzky's personae as photographer (eye) and constructor of images (hand) into a single likeness. Contesting the idea that straight photography provides a single, unmediated truth, Lissitzky held instead that montage, with its layering of one meaning over another, impels the viewer to reconsider the world. It thus marks a conceptual shift in the understanding of what a picture can be.

Gallery label from

The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook, April 16, 2012–April 29, 2013.

Medium Gelatin silver print
Dimensions 5 1/2 × 3 1/2" (13.9 × 8.9 cm)
Credit Thomas Walther Collection. Gift of Shirley C. Burden, by exchange
Object number 1764.2001
Department Photography

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