Vale Jerry Uelsmann

[Mark Darragh]

A great loss to the photographic community, Jerry died in Florida on April 4 at the age of 87.
Truly a remarkable and visionary photographer.


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[Dugan]

R.I.P.
A true visionary and innovator.
I'm glad to have had the opportunity to meet him.

[linhofbiker]

My wife was there in the University of Florida as a student in 1962/66 and thought that Jerry did some very interesting photographic "stuff". He was only 10 years older than her at 28.

[Robert Opheim]

Very sad. There was an artist in residence at the school where I studied photography in the 1970's named Peter Fortune. He was a good friend of Jerry Uelsmann. They would send artwork back and forth to each other. I remember seeing a package arrive and Peter showing a number of Jerry's amazing prints to us. They were just amazing.

[Joe O'Hara]

Sad. I became aware of him in the early '70s, and have always found his pictures mysterious and strangely compelling. Never met him though. I've yet to see anything done in PS by others that equals, much less exceeds, the impact of what he did in the darkroom. (I suspect that the discipline of having to do things the "hard way" disciplines the mind and heart as well.) I still have a paperback monograph of his work with an introduction by Ralph Hattersley. He was truly one of a kind. RIP.

[Tin Can]

RIP

Love his work

[Merg Ross]

Indeed, a great loss to the photography community.

Midway through the last century, the term "creative photography" became popular. Jerry's work fit in well. He added a new dimension to the medium, exhibiting what was possible utilizing imagination and skill. He set the bar very high for the generations that followed, doing so the hard way in a traditional darkroom. Few have come close to his achievements.

On a personal note, we participated in a national invitational exhibition held in Boston during 1961. I was 19, and Jerry was 26. His photographs were unique and inspirational, with prints priced at $15. Minor White was on the selection committee, and Ansel took note. It was refreshing to see Jerry's work embraced by those mired in the tradition of West Coast photography. Years later, he was appointed a trustee of the Friends of Photography organization in Carmel.

Jerry's contributions live on; unrivaled.

[esearing]

Jerry Uelsmann has passed away April 4. He create montage images in the darkroom before Photoshop.
I never knew he was from Florida or that he taught photography at the University of Florida in Gainesville from 1960 to 1998.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/a...KJOfjHLMsQT8DA

[Drew Wiley]

He's still the champ in my opinion of seamlessly not showing his hand with those comps. A whole different league from the paste-up and digital stitching types. More interesting content too - understood the delicate balance of whimsy and imagination involved, rather than going over the top; class act.

[Pieter]

There is an interesting anecdote in the NY Times obituary:

"His former wife Ms. Taylor, a digital artist who uses Photoshop, recalled that Adobe approached Mr. Uelsmann in the mid-1980s to create a poster image to promote a new version of Photoshop.

It was his introduction to the software. Adobe scanned some of his negatives and sent an expert to help him create a final photomontage of clouds resting in the palms of two hands while a rowboat floats unattended in the water nearby. He decided which elements to put where, but did not know how to use the software.

“He liked the image and decided to take the negatives into the darkroom and recreate it photographically,” Ms. Taylor wrote in an email. “Working in the wet darkroom was an integral part of his creative process; sitting at a desk was not for him.”