Untitled (Hands with clouds and house), Gelatin silver photomontage. 1989.
An American photographer, born 11th June 19234, in Detroit, Michigan.
"The basic idea that the artist could invent realities that were personally more meaningful than the ones that are literally given to the eye, appeals to me a great deal"
"The basic idea that the artist could invent realities that were personally more meaningful than the ones that are literally given to the eye, appeals to me a great deal"
Untitled (Woman levitating above the shore) Gelatin silver photomontage. 1986.
Uelsmann received a BA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1957, and M.S. and M.F.A. degrees from Indiana University in 1960. He was inspired by professors there - Minor White, Ralph Hattersley, and Henry Holmes Smith, all successful Photographers in their own right.
He worked as a Professor of Art at the University of Florida from 1960 to 1998, establishing one of the first fine art photography courses in America. The university paid him tribute by giving him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) degree in 2012.
His first solo exhibition was at The Museum of Modern Art from 1967 to 1970 – this catapulted his career as a fine art photographer/photomontagist.
Montage (French 'monter' - to mount) comprises of merging varied photographic images to create a new piece of work.
Uelsmann is a 20th century pioneer of photomontage as an art form, his images being created using different effects whist in the darkroom long before the development of computer packages such as Adobe Photoshop. He uses many enlargers at a time, keeping and using a catalogue of negatives that he has used in other images.
He creates with gelatin silver prints to make his black and white images, a chemical system developed in the 1870’s. These monochrome pictures are made with gelatin covered paper and silver salts that react to light.
He describes exploring possibilities in his studio as like being in a “research lab”.
“Photography is a process that is ongoing” - He describes his work as Post-Visualisation, he believes photography is experimentation, fluid.
While at university learning about art history, he found that Surrealism resonated with him. He felt that it evoked more profound internal truths, than images that were realistic.
He has accepted Fellowships from the Guggenheim (1967), from the National Endowment for the Arts (1972), and the Lucie Award in Fine Art (2015). He is a member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and a founding affiliate of The Society of Photographic Education, an international society set up in the early 1960’s to promote all forms of photography training. He is also a former trustee of the Friends of Photography, a group developed in the latter 60’s to support fine art photography.
He has exhibited his work extensively, having had more than 100 exhibitions over his lifetime. His work is held as permanent collections worldwide, including in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
His images have a dreamlike and unsettling quality to them. They draw the viewer in, I find myself trying to work out what they are made up of, how did he get to this point? What is he trying to say? Where are they set?
With "Woman levitating above the shore", he has a naked girl floating above the shore line. She is stretched out, with her hands behind her back. She appears to be at peace. The sea is calm, lapping quietly along the beach. The sky is dark, with bright white fluffy clouds. It isn't reality of course, if the girl was lying flat on the sand, the image would look like any other beach scene. But she isn't. This is what makes it individual, gives the image atmosphere.
"Hands with clouds and house" is perhaps a little more complicated. a young man casually looking to his right, as he stands (again naked), ankle deep in clouds. In front of him is a large Manor House with no door, the doorway black, making it slightly foreboding. these images are held within gigantic cupped hands. The hands come across as benign, the images gently resting inside. What little of the sky that can be seen is bright. It comes across as ethereal, abstract. It's not threatening or nightmarish, except maybe the black, empty door. The boy doesn't appear frightened.
I like the illusory worlds that he creates. I usually prefer colour over black and white, but his images wouldn't be as striking if colour was involved.
He worked as a Professor of Art at the University of Florida from 1960 to 1998, establishing one of the first fine art photography courses in America. The university paid him tribute by giving him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) degree in 2012.
His first solo exhibition was at The Museum of Modern Art from 1967 to 1970 – this catapulted his career as a fine art photographer/photomontagist.
Montage (French 'monter' - to mount) comprises of merging varied photographic images to create a new piece of work.
Uelsmann is a 20th century pioneer of photomontage as an art form, his images being created using different effects whist in the darkroom long before the development of computer packages such as Adobe Photoshop. He uses many enlargers at a time, keeping and using a catalogue of negatives that he has used in other images.
He creates with gelatin silver prints to make his black and white images, a chemical system developed in the 1870’s. These monochrome pictures are made with gelatin covered paper and silver salts that react to light.
He describes exploring possibilities in his studio as like being in a “research lab”.
“Photography is a process that is ongoing” - He describes his work as Post-Visualisation, he believes photography is experimentation, fluid.
While at university learning about art history, he found that Surrealism resonated with him. He felt that it evoked more profound internal truths, than images that were realistic.
He has accepted Fellowships from the Guggenheim (1967), from the National Endowment for the Arts (1972), and the Lucie Award in Fine Art (2015). He is a member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and a founding affiliate of The Society of Photographic Education, an international society set up in the early 1960’s to promote all forms of photography training. He is also a former trustee of the Friends of Photography, a group developed in the latter 60’s to support fine art photography.
He has exhibited his work extensively, having had more than 100 exhibitions over his lifetime. His work is held as permanent collections worldwide, including in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
His images have a dreamlike and unsettling quality to them. They draw the viewer in, I find myself trying to work out what they are made up of, how did he get to this point? What is he trying to say? Where are they set?
With "Woman levitating above the shore", he has a naked girl floating above the shore line. She is stretched out, with her hands behind her back. She appears to be at peace. The sea is calm, lapping quietly along the beach. The sky is dark, with bright white fluffy clouds. It isn't reality of course, if the girl was lying flat on the sand, the image would look like any other beach scene. But she isn't. This is what makes it individual, gives the image atmosphere.
"Hands with clouds and house" is perhaps a little more complicated. a young man casually looking to his right, as he stands (again naked), ankle deep in clouds. In front of him is a large Manor House with no door, the doorway black, making it slightly foreboding. these images are held within gigantic cupped hands. The hands come across as benign, the images gently resting inside. What little of the sky that can be seen is bright. It comes across as ethereal, abstract. It's not threatening or nightmarish, except maybe the black, empty door. The boy doesn't appear frightened.
I like the illusory worlds that he creates. I usually prefer colour over black and white, but his images wouldn't be as striking if colour was involved.