Still life - Pebbles, c.1980-82

During visits to New York in the 1970s, Dorothy Bohm came to know the Hungarian photographer André Kertész (1894-1985), who introduced her to the polaroid camera. It was with Kertész – and her Polaroid camera – that Bohm visited Kettle’s Yard in the early 1980s where this photograph was taken. About her work, Bohm wrote: “The photograph fulfils my deep need to stop things from disappearing. It makes transience less painful and retains something of the special magic, which I have looked for and found. I have tried to create order out of chaos, to find stability in flux and beauty in the most unlikely places.” At Kettle’s Yard, Bohm found the stability that Jim Ede had sought to create during his time in Cambridge through his collection of artworks, ceramics, glass and natural objects – a ready-subject for Bohm’s camera in the early 1980s, as it has continued to prove for our visitors today.