All About Jerry Uelsmann

"Preaching a single way of viewing the world reminds me of intolerant fundamentalists who are threatened by other points of view" -Jerry Uelsmann

As one can see, Jerry Uelsmann, an experimental photographer, certainly challenged the way people view photographs.  Recently, I read an interview with Jerry Uelsmann, and I was fascinated by his daring aspects, which one can see in his work.  Uelsmann was born in Detriot, Michigan, and recieved his B.F.A degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and his M.F.A at Indiana Univerity.  He then began teaching photography at University of Florida.  He has won a numerous amount of awards including the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1972.

This successful man broadened the borders of photography by using the technique of combination printing.  Uelsmann’s work was very different because he combined fantasy with reality.  At the time, this was not done, and many did not consider his work as photography and believed that photographs were suppose to follow the traditional appeal set out by photographers like Paul Strand and Edward Weston.  Today, we have this broad perspective of photography thanks to Uelsmanm.  Jerry Uelsmann, and with the help of many other photographer and artists, have changed the meaning of art in the twentieth century, by allowing viewers to interpret art in their own way. 

Uelsmann believes that the role of an artist is to "open the world to other possibilities".  He does not view art competitively, and supports the idea that "artists need the freedom to explore and to risk failure.  To master multiple printing, Jerry began to use many enlargers, instead of one, so he would not have to constantly change the negative.  I recently used multiple printing in our theme project, but wish I would have used Uelsmann's technique of using multiple enlargers.  Uelsmann inspired me to work hard, and tells photographers that, "what's the worst thing that's going to happen?  I can waste ten more sheets of paper and a couple of hours.  What's the best thing that can happen?  I can astound myself".  We must remember Uelsmann's philosophy in our work, and be willing to take risks!