John Gutmann: Image of an Image of Life, of Death
Peter d’Agostino © 1985/2020 Video installation Preview: 1 of 20min loop Edition: 5+2 AP
A visit with John Gutmann at home in San Fancisco, 1985 where he addresses his art making process and collection of death images and objects.
“John Gutmann (1905–1998) was one of America’s most distinctive photographers. Born in Germany where he trained as an artist and art teacher, he fled the Nazis in 1933 and settled in San Francisco, reinventing himself as a photo-journalist. Gutmann captured images of American culture, celebrating signs of a vibrant democracy, however imperfect. Gutmann’s interests in painting and filmmaking, his collections of non-Western art and artifacts, and his pedagogy, all figure in a body of work at once celebratory and mysterious.” Center for Creative Photography.