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This chapter examines the relationship between the biomorphic and a wider European context in the Polish Constructivist artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski’s formulation of 'Unism'. The proliferation of journals and in particular L’Esprit Nouveau with photographic reproductions is identified as a key background to Unism’s relationship to biology and evolutionary concepts. The possibility of mass diffused printed matter with high quality photographic reproductions is argued as determining a significant turn in the early decades of the century in relation to the formation of ideological constructs formerly referenced by illustration rather then photography.

The chapter was developed from a paper at the conference; ‘Readability of Images’ held at the Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland (October 2011).

The article considers the relationship between a key work of Strzeminski’s, namely ‘Synthetic Composition 1’ (1923), and a number of publications; in particular Ozenfant and Jeanneret‘s journal ‘L’Esprit Nouveau’. The discussion focuses on how the context of biology and the bio-politic influenced Strzeminski’s formulation of Unism and, in particular, how the distribution of photographic images in the 1920s were crucial to his thinking. The article was published in the book, ‘Wladyslaw Strzeminski: Czytelnosc Obrazow’ (Readability of Images) by the Muzeum Sztuki.