Collection Online as of December 10, 2023
That Inward Eye
John Gutmann
(German, 1905–1998)
Gelatin silver print, montage
Image: 22.7 x 17.5 cm (8 15/16 x 6 7/8 in.); Mounted: 35.7 x 27.2 cm (14 1/16 x 10 11/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2007.140
© Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
Location
not on view
Description
Trained as a painter, Gutmann took up photography shortly before immigrating to the United States with the idea of supporting himself there as a photojournalist. When he settled in San Francisco, he began teaching instead and in 1946, at San Francisco State University, founded one of the first American study programs in creative photography. The year he made this photograph, he married Gerrie von Pribosic, a talented painter associated with West Coast Surrealists. It is her eye among the clouds.