Professor Kessmann’s creative research addresses issues of representation and abstraction through the lens of photography and digital imaging. He has utilized as source material everything from pages of the Bible and art magazines and a seminal art history textbook to blank sheets of standard, letter-sized paper. His interests have ranged from the necessity of taking personal responsibility for the interpretation of a holy text to issues that revolve around the circulation of information about the art world and it’s relationship to the market place. In each of these projects the source material was transformed—systematically copied, reproduced, and re-presented—yet to some extent, these alterations merely held a mirror to the thing itself, as many photographs do. However, by carefully utilizing the strategy of appropriation these reflections are subtly distorted. This approach focuses the viewers’ attention in ways that allow for multiple interpretations and the construction of new meaning through the act of critical contemplation.
Professor Kessmann seeks an undergraduate student interested in working closely with him on the realization of an art project that references the nature of photographic production and confronts the history of monochromatic and color field painting. The primary subject of this new project is the vocabulary of commercial photography: medium gray and graduated color studio backgrounds, basic lighting studio equipment, and color calibration charts. While the resulting photographs will, on the one hand, resemble test shots regularly done prior to commercial still-life photography shoots to ensure proper lighting and color balance, the commercial products will be suspiciously absent. The colors in the images will not be selected based on subjective criteria, beyond the choice of purchasing the products from a major photographic retailer, yet particular colors will, nonetheless, have specific associations for individual viewers. The connections between fine art and consumerism addressed in this work will relate to a number of Professor Kessmann’s earlier projects; therefore, this new work will further develop a larger body of work that examines the intersection of high and low art within a consumer-driven society. Finally, in addition to the project described above, the student would assist Professor Kessmann in generating proof prints and final prints for a number of other projects.
Students should expect to work approximately six to nine hours a week. Duties may include: capturing digital files using a digital SLR camera and studio lighting, editing and retouching files using Photoshop, printing inkjet prints on large-format Epson printers, and conducting research on historical and contemporary works of art related to the various projects. Working knowledge of Photoshop, digital photography, and an interest in Modern and Contemporary art would be helpful, but not required.
Interested students should email Prof. Kessmann at kessmann@gwu.edu.
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