Constructed Images

The images in this print viewing introduce a range of constructed photographic images that address a concept or create a narrative. The artists included alter and photograph scenes they encounter or go to more elaborate ends to construct images that may be based more in the imagination than a record of “real” events. Among the techniques they use are handmade montage and collage, darkroom or computer manipulation, constructed tableaux that are then photographed, and hybrid works combining several methods. Additional works by the photographers featured here and others can be accessed from the MoCP website.

Artist: Scott McFarland Title: Hill Garden Pergola at Inverforth House Date: 2008 Medium: Inkjet Print Dimensions: Frame: 28 in x 33 in x 1 ½ in Image: 25 in x 26 in Credit Line: Museum Purchase

Burson, Nancy American, b. 1948

Artist Nancy Burson, in collaboration with MIT engineers Richard Carling and David Kramlich, produced some of the earliest computer-manipulated portraits long before commercial digital imaging software made this process easy and accessible. Burson continued to collaborate with Kramlich, who later became her husband. Together the two developed a significant computer program which gives the user the ability to age the human face by blending a photograph of a young person with an older person with a close physical resemblance. This process, which was born from Burson’s artistic curiosity about new ways to render the human form has subsequently assisted the FBI in locating missing persons benefitting the fields of digital imaging, science, and criminology. In Evolution II (1984), Burson combined the face of a man with that of a monkey to produce an imaginary portrait of a species (as well as a technology) in transition.

Title: Evolution II Date: 1984 Medium: Gelatin Silver Print Dimensions: Image: 7 in x 7 in Paper: 8 in x 10 in Credit Line: Purchase through Museum Fine Print Program

Fleischauer, Eric American, b. 1977

By substituting the iconic Hollywood sign with the word YouTube, Eric Fleischauer humorously declares that the video-sharing platform has eclipsed the film and television industry. In so doing, the artist suggests that the old media of the 20th century created by a small group of specialists for mass audiences is being replaced by a new democratic, participatory media where user-‐generated and professional content exists side by side. Throughout his work, Fleischauer considers the influence of technology, old and new, on individuals and within the cultural realm.

Title: Universal Paramount Date: 2013 Medium: Inkjet Print Dimensions: Image: 9 in x 12 in Paper: 11 in x 14 in Credit Line: Purchase through Museum Fine Print Program

Jerry Uelsmann American, b. 1934

Made entirely in the darkroom, Jerry Uelsmann creates his surreal photographs in a series of steps, masterfully masking and exposing different areas of photosensitive paper as he changes negatives. He maintains some loyalty to the aesthetic of traditional landscape and still life photography, insofar as the seams and edges of each successive element are concealed, and the resulting composite suggests the unity of a singular view or scene. The metaphoric and symbolic force of Uelsmann's photographs is derived from these juxtapositions, consistencies, and forms. Uelsmann's photo-montages extend the tradition of surrealist photography pioneered by the avant-garde photographers and painters of the 1930s and 40s: positive and negative spaces are inverted and false reflections appear in earth and water, architectural elements like windows and doorways bound tapestries of sky and sand.

Title: Free But Securely Held Date: 1965 Medium: Gelatin Silver Print Dimensions: Image: 9 in x 13 11/16 in Paper: 11 in x 14 in Credit Line: Gift of Roberta & Jack A. Jaffe

Title: Questioning Moment (Final Version) Date: 1971 Medium: Gelatin Silver Print Dimensions: Paper: 11 in x 14 in Credit Line: Gift of Sonia & Theodore Bloch

Ben Gest American b.1975

There is a tension-- a proximity without intimacy --in Ben Gest's pictures that is at first hard to explain. Gest’s images seemingly depict routine activities in ordinary places. Yet the people shown often clustered tightly together somehow fail to interact and appear somehow isolated. The photographer leaves subtle hints–-shifts in lighting, surfaces that don't quite align-–that suggest the construction of these scenes and help explain the disconnect between the people in them. Whether in a library, a bedroom, or a staircase, the subjects in Gest's photographs share the same place, but not at the same instance. Shot at separate times on separate negatives, Gest stitches together his subjects in a single frame in Photoshop.

Title: Mom & Dad Date: 2002 Medium: Inkjet Print Dimensions: Image: 14 ½ in x 14 ½ in Mat: 20 in x 24 in Credit Line: Extended Loan from Artist

Loretta Lux German, b. 1969

Loretta Lux’s portraits of children (and the occasional adult or self-portrait) are carefully controlled at every stage of production, from the formality of the poses she selects to the narrow pastel palette of the final prints. Often the children of friends, her subjects are distinguished by their vintage outfits (including some of Lux's own childhood things) and digitally adjusted features. Elongated limbs, oversized heads, and eyes spaced just a little farther apart than average contribute to the strange mystique found in their cool gazes and isolated locations. Computer manipulation is also employed to merge the subjects with their settings: backgrounds either painted by Lux or taken from her photographs of various European landscapes and interiors. The resolved scenes are produced as luminous Ilfochrome prints that, much like the images, enjoy the slick sensuality of processed goods.

Title: Hopper Date: 2005 Medium: Silver Dye Bleach Print Dimensions: Image: 9 in x 12 in Paper: 11 ¾ in x 14 ¾ in Credit Line: Gift of John & Mary Frances Hass

Title: The Waiting Girl Date: 2006 Medium: Silver Dye Bleach Print Dimensions: Image: 9 in x 12 ¾ in Paper: 11 ¾ in x 15 ¾ in Credit Line: Museum Purchase

Daniel Gordon American, b. 1980

Daniel Gordon depicts the human body in extreme situations by combining collage and staged photography. Approaching photography with the sensibilities of a sculptor, he creates figurative tableaus that are at once unsettling and comical, with different cut-outs pulled from various sources only loosely hanging together. Gordon plays with the imperfections of his constructions, conveying the discomforts of the body. The uneasy effect of his large color prints of collaged objects assembled in the studio draws attention to the oddities of the human body and to the surface of the paper, a material often overlooked in photography. Gordon’s affinity with painters and sculptors is evident in the elaborate textures and assemblages within his work.

Title: Salmon Skin Date: 2010 Medium: Chromogenic Development Print Dimensions: Frame: 19 ¾ in x 24 ½ in Credit Line: Museum Purchase

Title: July 22, 2009 Date: 2009 Medium: Chromogenic Devolopment Print Dimensions: Frame: 16 in x 20 in x 1 1/8 in Credit Line: Museum Purchase

Beate Gütschow German, b.1970

German, b.1970

In her work, Beate Gütschow's probes questions of the pictorial representation of reality. Initially a painter and installation artist, Gütschow became attracted to photography for its apparent, though qualified, ability to faithfully and accurately represent the world around us. Drawing from an enormous collection of photographs of trees, buildings, clouds, hills, and people—mostly taken with analog film by the artist herself— Gütschow's pictures are landscapes assembled digitally from up to hundred different photographic elements. Her final constructions at first glance appear as if captured from reality but upon closer inspection they are revealed as fiction. The large-scale color photographs in the “LS” series follow the formal rules of romantic landscape painting of the 17th century and are influenced by artists such as Claude Lorrain, John Constable, and Nicolas Poussin. Traditional landscape paintings are organized with three distinct spaces: the foreground serves as the viewer's entrance into the picture, usually framed by trees like a stages set; the middle ground contains a river or path and people looking outward; and the background vanishes in the far distance. The frame suggests an expansive terrain. Using these rules, Gütschow creates an idyllic landscape by seamlessly mixing fragments of photographs of parks, construction sites, pristine nature, and people engaged in leisure activities. The deliberate inclusion of familiar 21st century elements like garbage, trees cut by chainsaws, and people in t-shirts leads the viewer of these otherwise romantic landscapes to regard them with suspicion.

Title: LS #14 Date: 2003 Medium: Chromogenic Development Print Dimensions: Image: 12 x 19 in Paper: 16 ½ in x 23 ¾ in Credit Line: Museum Purchase through Fine Print Program

Witkin, Joel-Peter American, b.1939

Joel-Peter Witkin's dark imagination is fueled by art history--from Courbet to Seurat, Caravaggio to Dali--which he visually quotes in his photographic tableaux. In his own work, Witkin makes pointed references to the history of photography by including fragments of familiar images. In The Fool, Budapest, Witkin composes his own mythological spectacle using elements from Titian's painting Rape of Europa (1559-62) and Velazquez's painting Phillip IV on Horseback (1635). In his construction, however, Witkin reveals the boundaries of a painted backdrop, alluding to the illusion of representational painting as well as the early tableaux vivant genre in the history of photography. His darkly fantastic vision is shaped by deliberate manipulation of the photographic surface to make it appear aged, an act that further comments on the nature of the photographic image by calling into question its permanency. Above all else, Witkin considers issues of morality as central to his work. Drawing from a rich body of sources - literature, myth, Renaissance and Baroque painting, and his own personal background - Witkin creates elaborate photographic tableaux that address the morbid, the perverse, the erotic, and the religious. In nearly all of his works, these moral issues are acted out by social outcasts, pariahs, and human oddities. Witkin also frequently uses dead bodies or body parts in the creation of his work all of which contribute to the spiritual and ephemeral quality of his imagery

Title: The Fool, Budapest Date: 1993 Medium: Gelatin Silver Print Dimensions: Frame: 41 ¼ in x 46 ¼ in Image: 29 1/8 in x 36 1/8 in Credit Line: Museum Purchase

McFarland, Scott Canadian, b.1975

Scott McFarland’s work disrupts the traditional concept of the photograph as the depiction of a single moment in time. He combines multiple photographs of the same scene made at the precise time of day over the course of several weeks. Hill Garden Pergola at Inverforth House is comprised of imagery from three different gardens in Los Angeles and Vancouver, resulting in an elaborate composite of multiple negatives and representing a landscape with a durational quality that stitches together a series of exposures. McFarland’s works, whether seamlessly coherent or collage-like, interrogate our tacit acceptance of the pre-digital photograph as a faithful representation of a single moment. Instead, he conveys the accumulation of experience. This pictorial conception was spurred by the artist’s own consideration of the garden as an artificial environment, one constructed from flora displaced from their native origins and reconfigured in unnatural, aestheticized forms.

Title: Hill Garden Pergola at Inverforth House Date: 2008 Medium: Inkjet Print Dimensions: Frame: 28 in x 33 in x 1 ½ in Image: 25 in x 26 in Credit Line: Museum Purchase

Constructed and Staged Images: Questions for Looking and Discussion • Look carefully at the image. Describe what you see. What pulls your attention? Why? • What can you tell about how this image was made? • We have identified that the images in this set are all, to some degree, “constructed” or “staged.” What about this image do you think as constructed, manipulated, or staged? Why? • How do you think that was done? For example, do you think the image was constructed for the camera? Or was it manipulated in the darkroom, with the use of a computer, or modified by hand? Why do you think that? • Why do you think the artist chose to use that particular technique? • What do you think this work is about? • What do you think the artist was trying to communicate through this work? Why? •Do you think truths can be found in constructed or staged images? Describe. Deeper Reading: Adding Context We can learn a lot about some images just through what we observe in the photograph. In many cases learning about the artist, their intentions and the cultural and historic context in which the work was made adds much to our understanding. For example, understanding Joel Peter Witkin’s working practice as well as his art historical references add much to our understanding of his work. After students carefully look at the work and consider the above questions, ask them to read about the artist and their work and learn about the cultural and historic context in which the work was made. The teacher or docent could also provide some of this information. After students have learned some context surrounding the work, ask them to reconsider the images and how this additional information impacts their understanding.