“H2O” (1929) is one of two visual poems on water by the American Ralph Steiner. The second was “Surf and Seaweed” (1930). Contemplating the play of light and shade on the reflective surface of water, the film isolates and makes a detailed observation of the rapid reconstitution of moving images in the natural world. The meditative rhythmic tone between shots suggests a succession of images associated with an exercise in sensory montage, directed at the immediacy of the data of the experience. They form empathetic frames, authentic interrupted paintings where the permanently oscillating images convoke an emotional interplay. The vibrant sensation of beauty in the rhythmical succession of these narratives in light evokes contemplation in the spectator. The capabilities of such involvement are reminiscent of the lyrical heights of abstract expressionism and a fluidity suggesting the possibility of unity between figurative and abstract representations of the same natural element. The exclusive focus on formal elements is characteristic of cinéma pur and establishes the basis for a poetic style that would have such influential followers Brakhage or Len Lye. A pioneering exercise in visual concentration, which though marking his very first contact with the moving image remains to this day one of Steiner’s most influential contributions to the cinema of the avant-garde. (SDM)