Jerry Uelsmann

I’ve been thinking about what direction I want to go in for my next body of work and I was thinking about how I can create a narrative or story with the people I photograph. I was also thinking about the reasons why I photograph and I came to the realization that for me photographing is not about capturing the reality of a person or a moment, it’s about creating a fantasy. For the same reason that people, myself included, read fictional books, I photograph as an escape from the world. As I was thinking about how I could set up a narrative of fantasy with my subjects I came across an artist that has greatly inspired me. Jerry Uelsmann creates other worlds and dreamlike situations through the use of darkroom manipulation. Like Uelsmann, I want to use the darkroom to manipulate my images so that I can create this narrative. Uelsmann uses multiple exposures in the darkroom to create his images, which I find to be astonishing considering the difficultly of piecing together images in this way opposed to using photoshop to get the same effect. This is what I love about his work, the fact that he has not given in to the digital era and even continues to use the same camera he used in the 60s, a Bronica GS-1. Like Uelsmann, I want to experiment with multiple exposures in the darkroom but I also want to use my negatives like pieces in a collage, much like I do with cyanotypes and Van Dykes. I would also like to try out the same camera that Uelsmann is using to see how the outcome will vary from the use of a 35 mm. His photographs have a beautiful quality of light, especially in the photograph above created by Uelsmann in 1986 and untitled. The shimmer of the satin dress as it morphs into waves is mesmerizing. I hope to create this same compelling effect within my work as I create fantasy worlds and narratives with my own subjects.

You can view Uelsmann’s work at this site: http://www.uelsmann.net.