Dance is about movement, but this photograph presents stillness—choreographer and dancer Martha Graham transformed into classical sculpture. Her columnar body, clad in a sheath dress, seems monumental despite her short stature (she was only 4 feet, 11 inches). Although a dancer’s feet and hands are integral to their expressive movement, Morgan crops this image closely to show only Graham’s torso and legs, recalling the way ancient Greek sculptures are often found with extremities missing, a fitting connection given the Greek title.

Although she also made portraits and landscapes and experimented in the darkroom, Morgan remains best known for her iconic photographs of American modernist dance. First developed in 1933, the choreography to “Ekstasis” was long ago lost without video or choreographic notation, but in 2017 it was reconstructed based in part on Morgan’s photographs.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)