Printable Version in PDF format PDN: Do you, as an imagemaker, have a certain quest that you are on? UELSMANN: Simply stated, my hidden agenda is to amaze myself. The quest is to produce something that is uniquely mine. And obviously I can do this because I don't work with clients, I'm just trying to satisfy myself in certain ways. Every year I produce at least 100 different images. At the end of the year, my agenda is to find 10 that I really like. On one hand, I get frustrated by the notion that every time I go in the darkroom only 1 out of 10 times I will produce this thing that survives. But on the other hand it's also like saying, "Hey, we've got this short time together, let's just be profound, OK? Let's not fool around." I'm not going to grow another head and suddenly start doing street photography, but within my work, I do want to sense some kind of personal growth. "We've got this short time together, let's just be profound..." – Jerry Uelsmann PDN: Meanwhile, you have managed to be successful without having clients, per se, and you manage to make money doing what you love to do.... Untitled, 1976 UELSMANN: Well I guess success is something that happens to you but it was never my agenda. I am very happy when people want to use my photographs and as long as they're using them in some way that is not offensive to me—like supporting smoking or something—then great. I'm very happy that my images have another purpose... it's amazing to me that you can be well paid for that. I had some photographs used on the introduction to a TV show called Outer Limits; they just run these things for a matter of seconds and do some kind of montage. I was overwhelmed because I don't function in the commercial world but I made more money on that than any gallery show I've ever had, and just for this blip on the screen thing. So, yes, I guess I've been successful but success for me is each year keeping myself a viable, growing person. My hope is that I can constantly push back barriers and have something new and different happen to me each time. PDN: It's been said that a lot of your photographs have psychological and/or spiritual dimensions? Is that your intention when making an image? UELSMANN: I think my images have a lot of both. I also think that that has been a detriment to me in terms of the contemporary art scene because it's much more difficult for critics to write about work if they don't understand what's behind it. Most of my work places a great responsibility on the audience. I like that people have come to me and said, "Oh, you made a photograph that was one of my dreams." People have various interpretations of my images. One of my most popular images is of this man that is walking on a desk in a study that has a cloud ceiling. I think it's popular because it falls within what we generally call the narrative tradition. You just want to make up a story about it. I find that although I have left this image untitled, one of my gallery dealers, when he wants this picture, he always says, "I would like to get a copy of the Philosopher's Study." PDN:How much time do you currently spend in the darkroom? Untitled, 1987 UELSMANN: I work on a regular basis in the darkroom. I guess my wife [digital artist Maggie Taylor] would tell you, I'm a workaholic. I start wherever I'm at and try to build an image that is meaningful to me and sometimes they are just silly pictures. Sometimes, though, they're depressing, they're darker. There's a whole range of emotions. Later, I try to address them and figure out intellectually what they're about. One of my images that is reasonably popular is of leaves floating over a couch in a museum setting and behind the couch is a picture on the wall of a tree that's barren. When I look at this image I can think of how this thing gradually evolved over a long period of time. It started when someone at one of the darker times in my life—when I was getting divorced or something—gave me a poinsettia plant. And as the leaves fell off, I thought, "Gee, these are interesting." Sometimes, that's all it takes for me to develop an idea for an image. PDN: Do you often have a pre-arranged vision of an image or does a lot of your work start out as one thing and end up as another? UELSMANN: This is a good question. It's like where do you start? You have to start where you're at basically, with the material you have. When I was in Washington recently, I had the opportunity to photograph at some of the museums there and that was all fresh material for me. But sometimes—I'm sure you've had this experience as a writer—sometimes you start something and the characters just run away from you; they become their own entity and you don't even know what it's about. Other times, it's a much more painful delivery, calculating "What can I do next? What else can I do to change this image?" Believe me, it's a struggle. I move back and forth in terms of things that I had done previously. 1   2   3   4