Matthew

Kenneth JosephsonWW-1965-108090

1965·Gelatin silver print·28 × 35.6 cm (11 × 14 in.)

<p>Kenneth Josephson was among the first generation of photographers to graduate with a master’s degree in photography from the Institute of Design in Chicago, where he studied with Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan; he then taught photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for over 35 years. Josephson often layers pictures within pictures, focusing on the act of image-making and investigating how a photograph differs from reality. Here, his son Matthew holds a Polaroid print of himself upside down; his finger is positioned as if he is about to click the shutter of an imaginary camera. The Polaroid in this picture reflects the photographic process—how, in a camera, an image passing through a lens is projected upside down onto the film—as well as Josephson’s interest in underscoring the photographic image as a depiction of, not a window onto, the physical world.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1965
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 28 × 35.6 cm (11 × 14 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Kenneth Josephson

Artist

Kenneth Josephson

Photography

Kenneth Josephson is an American photographer known for conceptual and formally rigorous work that treats the photograph itself as a sculptural or architectural object. Working primarily with black-and-white film since the 1960s, he explores the relationship between the camera's mechanical vision and human perception, often incorporating the frame edge, the photograph's materiality, or reflections within the image plane. His practice examines photography not as transparent documentation but as a constructed medium with its own spatial and temporal logic.

Detroit, MI, USA

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