Photographer, previous University of Florida professor Jerry Uelsmann has died

Groundbreaking surrealist photographer Jerry Uelsmann has died.

The phrase that the legendary 87-12 months-previous photographer had passed absent commenced to unfold close to the Gainesville creative arts group late Monday afternoon.

“The operate is legendary, and so was Jerry,” mentioned Elizabeth Ross, College of Florida’s School of Art + Artwork History director, in a statement. “He transformed pictures.”

Uelsmann’s system of layering negatives and varying exposures produced visible masterpieces of photomontage. A single of Uelsmann’s is effective features a pair of fingers cradling a bird’s nest and rising from a tree stump. His ability to blend scenes, like generating clouds and rippling drinking water look to grow to be 1, was honed in the darkroom by way of decades of perform.

Uelsmann worked in the darkroom until the incredibly end. He didn’t like to use electronic program like Photoshop.

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Uelsmann grew to attractiveness in the 1960s soon after coming to train images at the University of Florida.

“He taught for 38 many years supporting to build the innovative images application,” said Ross.

As a professor and human being, Uelsmann touched the lives of numerous of his students, who say his openness, real like for sharing his everyday living philosophy as a result of photography and supplying spirit are some of the attributes he will be remembered for.

John Moran, an environmental photojournalist and former Gainesville Sunlight photographer, was a college student of Uelsmann in the mid-1970s.

“He was among the most effective instructors I’ve at any time had,” he said. “He taught his pupils to belief and nurture the mind’s eye.”