The Dreaming State

Richard Avedon, “Beekeeper”, 1981

Avedon was an American fashion and portrait photographer with a huge collection of work. Many images we may have seen but didn’t know he took them. The famous Simon and Garfunkel album cover, a young Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Buster Keaton and many more… The New York Times spoke of him saying “his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America’s image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century”… Here we see a beekeeper with his bees, simple and surreal. I recall hearing that Avedon would set up a white backdrop so that many photos could be taken outside using the sun. He also has left in the strange border markings that tell the viewer a large format film camera was used. See more at http://www.richardavedon.com/.

Kenneth Josephson, Chicago, 1973

Josephson is a very early influential practitioner of conceptual photography. He studied with Minor White at RIT and was later inspired by Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan. His work uses various techniques such as double exposures, holding objects into the scene, combining photographic prints within the exposure itself, and so on – speaking about the process and ideas relating to the medium itself.

Abelardo Morell, “View Of Central Park Looking North, Fall”, 2008

Morell is a Cuban born Boston based photographer working with the earliest fundamentals of photography: The Camera Obscura. What you see here is not a double exposure or digital trickery, but rather a simple projection of light onto an interior room. When a room is sealed off and a hole is made in the window, the light from outside is projected inside the room… Morell explored the idea of turning spaces all around the world into camera obscuras, and then documented the space. Sometimes he would use a lens to get a sharper image, sometimes a prism to flip the projection right-side-up… I did this to a room of mine back in college and watched upside down people walk across my ceiling. It is quite amusing. See more at http://www.abelardomorell.net/

Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, “The Source”, 2004

Many who know me know that my all time favorite photographers are the ParkeHarrison’s. They inspired me to create my early works and continue to blow my mind… This husband and wife duo doesn’t simply TAKE photographs – anyone can do that – instead they create scenes that tell surreal narratives through a combination of sculpture, performance, and using each other as models. Much of their work, especially earlier like in the series Architect’s Brother, seems to do with man interacting and working with his landscape. A character is cleaning up nature, fixing things, and exploring his desolate surroundings. Their new work is quite different and quite mesmerizing as well. Colorful, mysterious, with a hint of confusion or dismay. They create true visual poetry. See more at http://www.parkeharrison.com/

Gerhard Richter, “Muot Selvas. Piz Güz, Piz Lad”, 1992

Gerhard Richter is a very well known German artist works with painting, photography, and even glass. I love his body of work where he adds paint directly over photographs, especially when he matches colors within the image or contrasts them with something very vibrant and different. The combinations of mediums is very hard to do and I think he has found a way to do so flawlessly and elegantly… In this piece he is painting with oils directly onto photographs, smearing them, creating a split reality, both ordinary and abstract. Of course, given some of my latest works, I take interest in his photo paintings. See more at https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/