Author: Parry, Eugenia
Title: Adam Fuss
Description: Santa Fe, New Mexico, Arena Editions, 1997. First edition. Hardcover. White & color illus. boards, brown & illus. dust jacket, 132 pp. BW & color illus.; weighs 3 lbs. Considers the life and work of British-born photographer Adam Fuss (b. 1961). "Like an eighteenth-century experimenter, Fuss utilizes organic and raw materials in an unusual approach, revealing spiritual and emotional process.. This book, the first major monograph of the artist's work, is certain to be an important contribution to current discussions of photography's past and the question of its future." (dj) This self-titled book is about life, death and various cultural and personal views of spirituality. Much like an autobiography in words and pictures, the book catalogues Fuss's progression as he explores the world around him while questioning what it means to "exist." The book starts out with a biography of Fuss's life, providing the viewer with an outline of his interests in the natural and spiritual worlds dating back to his childhood. As his ideas develop, he confronts photography's "problem" -inextricable attachment to realistic representation- by challenging it with his desire to "capture and keep an object's mysterious self-inscription." The results are the 57 plates located in the last section of the book. Using organic and raw materials such as humans and animals, flowers and plants, water, stained glass from churches and light alone, Fuss inscribes their living energies onto the light sensitive paper by use of time and a stroboscopic flash. The universe, conscious versus the unconscious, chaos versus harmony, representations of the soul's journey, and the awareness of eternal return can all be seen throughout these photograms. From abstract expressionism and surrealism to pure documentation, Fuss's unique methodology refers to past masters while revealing his spiritual and emotional process as a journey to discover the essence of natural forms. Adam Fuss has emerged as one of the bold and truly creative artists utilizing photography today. Fuss's photograms clearly break from those of his predecessors, Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy, and Talbot, and while striking a chord of homage, the images redefine how and what we see in pictures, viscerally and intellectually. VG- (DJ fits loosely on book, and one corner is peeling slightly; dj also has light wear to top edge; few marks and labels and pocket as ex-library; otherwise clean and tight.) .

Keywords: Photography ; Fuss, Adam ; ;


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