Invention & Experimentation
Strange lighting, radical perspectives, and double exposures informed Nick’s innovations in photography. Independent of European developments, he experimented with visual illusions using simple props, movement and gesture. He implied visual and psychological narratives that seem startlingly modern and deliberately ambiguous. Nick played with the expressive potential of double portraits, and anticipated the themes covered in Popular Photography magazine.
(Above, Bert Deans, Morden, prior to June 1938)
Beryl Rabinovitch, Rabinovitch Residence, Morden, April 1, 1939
Nick Yudell, Self-Portrait, 1933-383 Alfred Ave, with Joe Adelman
Zenon Yonker, Yonker Residence, 397 Burrows Ave., Winnipeg, January 1933
Beryl Rabinovitch double exposure, Rabinovitch Residence, Morden 1939
Model Plane, Northeast Corner of Bannerman and Aikins Streets, Winnipeg, May 1933
Beryl Rabinovitch (in motion), Shirley Rice (left), Leon Rabinovitch (right), Rabinovitch Residence, Morden, 1938
Visual Sources
In the 1920s and 1930s, photography became recognized as art. Nick read Popular Photography and Minicam, keeping each issue. His darkroom designs and materials list remained hidden in one copy. Milton Rabinovitch kept Nick’s magazines as if he were returning. They provide some of Nick’s visual sources.
