Kenneth Josephson
American, b. 1932
Notable Works
Kenneth Josephson's conceptual photography experiments with playful illusion to explore and question his medium. Josephson was a graduate among the first generation of photography candidates from the Illinois Institute of Design. A student of such masters as Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, and Minor White, Josephson went on to teach for 35 years at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he routinely taught the "Introduction to Photography" course as it inspired him to continue experimentation. In his well known image New York State (1970), Josephson pictured his own outstretched arm holding a photograph of a ship superimposed over an ocean horizon. À la René Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (The Treachery of Images, 1928-29), the image is a reminder that regardless of how real a two-dimensional image may appear, it is still merely an illusion.
Notable Works
Kenneth Josephson's conceptual photography experiments with playful illusion to explore and question his medium. Josephson was a graduate among the first generation of photography candidates from the Illinois Institute of Design. A student of such masters as Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, and Minor White, Josephson went on to teach for 35 years at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he routinely taught the "Introduction to Photography" course as it inspired him to continue experimentation. In his well known image New York State (1970), Josephson pictured his own outstretched arm holding a photograph of a ship superimposed over an ocean horizon. À la René Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (The Treachery of Images, 1928-29), the image is a reminder that regardless of how real a two-dimensional image may appear, it is still merely an illusion.