ok im an amateur photographer. the only reason im still doing photography is because of scott mutter and jerry uelsmanns work. i would love to contact them but i cannot find any email or mail address's for either. if anybody knows how i could contact scott mutter or jerry uelsmann i would greatly appreciate it. does scott still work with photography? i have not seen anything new at all, no books or anything. does he plan to publish another book? does scott have any of his photographs in art museums in chicago or anywhere else in illinios? are actual prints from him even availible or can people only buy the posters? i would like to know about some techniques he uses. well if anybody can answer any of my questions i would appreciate it. I hope to continue in the vein of scott mutter and jerry uelsmann and cross the bounds of visual reality.
I spoke with Scott at length just last night. He does not have an email address and he doesn't have an agent. This forum was designed to collect comments and questions for him with the hope that he'll eventually get the time to answer some folks online, directly. (If there's an urgent business matter, people can email me directly at "images (at) photographymuseum.com " and I'll forward the information.)
For now, I'll try to answer some of your questions:
Scott has been fighting health problems for years, but has recently been feeling better and accomplishing a lot. He's working on new images, and also working to produce very large exhibition prints of some of his classics. His book "Surrational Images" has never gone out of print, although I think he would like to do another book someday. He publishes posters and a yearly calendar through Portal Press.
Even before I put the American Museum of Photography online more than six years ago, I was talking with Scott about selling original prints of his photographs. He's stayed away from the gallery scene for a number of years, and now is exploring the possibility of offering museum-quality signed digital prints through us.
Scott's work is in a number of corporate collections but I don't know of any museums that have his work on permanent display. My hope is that he will get some new attention from museums when he has the large digital exhibition prints ready. Museums, like other public institutions, occasionally respond to requests from their visitors, so people who want to see Scott's work exhibited should (politely) pass their suggestions along to their local photography curator.
On technique: until recently, all of Scott's work was done with combination printing techniques in the darkroom. This usually involved masking negatives and/or the print paper, and exposing prints under multiple enlargers. Now, of course, more and more people are switching to digital "darkrooms" and Scott is eagerly experimenting with that.
Of course, the real magic in Scott's work is not connected with HOW he makes his photographs -- digital or darkroom, it's all just technique. What matters is the ideas and the creative leaps he makes when his mind somehow melds together two very different elements into a single harmonious photograph.
And that's not something you can teach... and maybe not even something that can be fully explained.
hello my name is eric palmer i have been a fan of scott mutters work for a few years now. i personally own the escalator and art is no idel thing. i have noticed that alot of his work can come across as maybe religous. I have always enjoyed drawing and creating pictures. i have recently drew a pictue that means alot to me. It like many of mr. mutters photos can be looked at as religous. I was just wondering if he would be interested in makeing a print from my picture or even my idea. I am leaving for the army in sept. and this would really mean the world to me. thanks, eric.
I recently purchased a framed copy of Scott Mutter's "Eagle" at Goodwill Mission store --a charity something like the Salvation Army. I spotted it and fell in love with it and still love it. I paid around $20.00 for it but would have cheerfully paid a great deal more! I have looked on line at a number of his images and this is the one that speaks to me. I had never seen any of his work, so I explored Google. My eagle is the older version, without the altered sky, and there are some wonderful cryptic lines under the print:
" Born into this world
We create echoes of our inward yearnings
and shift along the axis from matter to spirit. "
Did Scott write these lines? They speak for the piece perfectly.
But as a fellow creative nut ( writer, sometime poet, sculptor, etc.), I am very curious about the process. Not the technical part, but what guides him in choosing elements to combine? I did a sculpture called "The Goddess", an abstracted female figure with elements from different styles, different artists and the natural world. The various influences I drew from I did consciously, for the most part, although I suspect one's self-conscious is always guiding such creations. And I think that my bronze piece achieves a similar spiritual quality also open to individual interpretation. And much happy accident was involved in its creation.
You need not post this letter on the website--I simply want to communicate to Scott how much lasting pleasure this piece gives me. I suppose I collect, eclectively. Price tag is irrevelant, be it $20.00, $.20 OR $20,000 for a large bronze. My apartmenton the 20th floor of a New Jersey high rise has a large open living room overlooking the New York Skyline; in fact I watched one of the WTC towers fall, and watched erupting clouds of black smoke which lasted for weeks. Once in a while, dark grey streaks of cloud stretch over the southern tip of the city in an elongated blackish line stretching over the Staten Island Hills. They echo the smoke from the 9/11. Scotts eagle hangs on that eastern wall next to the large sliding picture windows. It is in the right place.
dear Mr. Becker,
do you know if mr. Mutter is going to create any more posters of untitled (eagle). Its just that i did a report on him for school and was trying to find this one poster. sadily i found out it was "out of print". then i came to this site and found it for sale (yea!), but, sadly once again, you only sell it in a set for a reasonable price (though too much for a student). well just wondering, please write to me if you have any information. thanks.
~gavin
