Jerry Uelsmann 1934 – 2022
American surrealist photographer and photomontage pioneer Jerry Uelsmann has died. He was 87.
‘Uelsmann became influential in the 1960s by compositing images using multiple enlargers, which are specialized transparency projectors used to produce photographic prints from negatives. Many of the darkroom techniques developed by Uelsmann would later make their way into photomanipulation software, though Uelsman never made the switch to digital tools.
Uelsmann received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1972. He was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, a founding member of The Society of Photographic Education, and a former trustee of the Friends of Photography. His work has been exhibited in more than 100 individual shows, and his photographs are in the permanent collections of many major museums.’ ABC News
Main photograph above. Untitled (lake) 2000. Copyright Jerry Uelsmann.
I’m reminded of the exhibition of his work at Point Light Gallery in Sydney many years ago. Some of the bext examples of silver gelatin printing I’ve ever seen, setting aside the technical achievement of multiple exposures. One of a kind.
Sad to hear of Jerry’s demise. He was a great man of photography and an inspiration to many artists working in this and other 2D media. He was recognised in the broader context of fine art in his work at the university in Florida and will be missed by many who benefitted from his teachings I have a work of his in my collection and it will remain so as a memory of his efforts and of his life in general. Goodbye Yrrej.