2009.42.1, Judy Linn, Legs, 2002

For nearly four decades the American photographer Judy Linn has documented her impressions of everyday life. Best known for her portraits of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, her work also features less recognizable subjects, namely moments in our daily routines that are easily and often overlooked. Generally limited to gray tones, Linn's works are marked by a directness and compositional clarity. This expert command of the camera is in large part due to Linn's extensive experience with the medium, and to the influences of Alfred Stieglitz and Robert Frank, and of Helen Levitt, with whom she worked alongside in the 1980s.

In Legs, we are presented with a restricted view of a person lying on the grass, with one pant leg pushed up above the knee and the other hanging loosely. Though a common sight, here the appearance of the one leg bare and one covered seems unbalanced, creating an unsettling sense of the body where its parts are removed from their original context.  

DMA unpublished material, 2009.

Until 2009: Collection of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY

From 2009: Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the above [1]

[1] See Deed of Gift in Collections Records Object File 2009.42.1

Apply to objects where number equals 2009.42.1