This photograph is a stylistic masterpiece, especially impressive for the precociousness of its mise-en-scène. It was most likely exhibited at the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs de Industriels in Paris where the artist Frantisek Drtikol received top honors and was awarded a gold medal. 

This work also held a pivotal role in the history of photography. While it was exhibited in Paris, a number of young photographers who would become important artists in their own right had the opportunity to study and admire Drtikol’s work. The artist and photographer Man Ray seems to have been particularly moved by “Cactus” as his own masterpiece “Noire et Blanche,” created the following year in 1926, appears to have been heavily influenced by the composition of Drtikol’s photograph.

The artistic parallels between these two works are remarkable: the tight framing, the shadow formed by a powerful light source from the left. Though contemporary historians of photography talk little about it, there was a very lively connection between these two artists.