![[Desert Sand Hills near Sink of Carson, Nevada]](https://exhibitions.blueskygallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/karl-baden-1989-14.jpg)
Sex, Death And The History Of Photography
October 5 – 28, 1989
Sex, Death, and the History of Photography is a series of photomontages done in 1988 and 1989. The modus operandi is simple and straightforward: I combine images by a single photographer or images by several different photographers, creating a pastiche which, visually and or metaphorically, comment on the original photographs, photographers, and, perhaps, their connection to larger issues in photography and culture. My choice of images is inspired by a variety of factors, including historical compatibility, cultural significance, and visual effect. Sometimes I combine photographs because I’m not quite sure what their cumulative value will be until combined. Other times, it is simply that visually, the combination gives me a jolt or makes me smile, humor, perhaps satire, seems always to be a part of the way I work, a reflection of my sensibilities. Issues regarding the history of photography and its relation to culture are more complex I try to work in a way that allows the work an openness that goes beyond the joke and the cultural issues raised.
The images in Sex, Death, and the History of Photography were made using ‘traditional’ montage and collage methods, ie, physical cut and paste. There was no use of a computer or photoshop, and the work has no digital component.
Karl Baden’s photographs have been widely exhibited, including at the Robert Mann Gallery, Zabriskie Gallery, Marcuse Pfeifer Gallery International Center for Photography and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Anderson Yezerski Gallery, The Institute of Contemporary Art and The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Musée Batut in France, Photokina in Cologne, Germany, The Photographers Gallery and Somerset House, both in London. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Light Work Visual Studies. His photographs and visual books are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Addison Gallery of American Art, Polaroid International Collection and the Guggenheim Museum. He is a Research Associate Professor at Boston College.
www.andersonyezerski.com/karl-baden
