Small woods where I met myself - the work and life of Jerry Uelsmann 1934-1975

The photographer Jerry Uelsmann (b. 1934) was the photographer who first departed from the strict modernist ideal of the North American photography scene and made photo montages and manipulated images accepted as part of photography art in the late 1960s. This would earn him the epithet "Godfather of Photoshop" in the 1990s.

Although Jerry Uelsmann is an important figure in photo history, and is included in all photo historical works, no monograph over him has ever been written. This book is a biography of Uelsmann's life and work between the years 1934-1975. I have, as the only researcher ever, access to Uelsmann’s whole personal archive and his whole image production.

The book is based on a large material consisting of letters, catalogues, media entries, and several hours of interviews with Uelsmann, his study peers, his students, his wives, and friends.

Important empirical material for the study is of course also the around 2000 artistic images created by Uelsmann between 1953 and 1975, and the around 100 vernacular photographs that I have collected from various sources showing Uelsmann’s private life settings.

The book is to a large extent structured around the (shifting) cultural idea contexts that Uelsmann was exposed to, and took part in, throughout the period covered.