Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Jerry Uelsmann was the first student to receive an MFA in photography from Indiana University (1960), where he studied with the legendary Henry Holmes Smith. His one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967 helped to change the public’s perception of photography, by showing that it could be more than merely a tool for documenting reality. As he said, “It is my conviction that the darkroom is capable of being, in the truest sense, a visual research lab; a place for discovery, observation, and meditation.” His process of “post-visualization” allowed him to navigate the world of the imagination to create a new form of deeply personal artistic expression that would be an inspiration to many artists in the post-digital age. The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection includes 185 works by Uelsmann.