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PHOTOGRAPHS
Samaras, Lucas
Greece / U.S. (1936 - )
Photo-Transformation, 11/16/73
1973
Internal dye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid SX-70)
3 x 3 in. (7.6 x 7.6 cm) image size; 9 5/8 x 9 5/16 in. (24.5 x 23.7 cm) frame size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.144

In the mid-1960s, New York artist Lucas Samaras emerged as a leader in the use of the human body as expressive medium. His rise to critical acclaim came at a time when Pop Art and cool Minimalism were dominant. In performance, film, video, and photography, he presents himself repeatedly in autobiographical investigations addressing his ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. Samaras’ Photo Transformations of 1973 are all self-portraits made with a Polaroid SX-70 camera and altered by drawing directly onto the surface of the developing print. The resulting pictures convey personal anger, pain, and anguish in ways unimaginable in an unaltered photograph.

Extended label for The Photographic Impulse: A Critical History of Photography, The Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection. Henry Art Gallery, July 12 to November 10, 2002

-- Label copy for Vortexhibition Polyphonica: Opus I, October 3, 2009 to February 9, 2010.

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