Photo-Transformation

Lucas Samaras American, born Greece

November 30, 1973

Not on view

Samaras was already well known as a sculptor, painter, and performance artist when he began experimenting with photography in 1969. Working with a Polaroid camera, he created hundreds of lush, idiosyncratic images of his favorite subject: himself. In his Photo-Transformations series of 1973-76, Samaras extended the formal possibilities of the Polaroid by using his hand or a stylus to gouge, smear, and stipple the wet dye emulsions of the instant prints while they were developing. Here, the artist seems to dissolve into a watery reflection while his fist threatens to punch through the picture plane into the viewer's space.

Artwork Details

Title: Photo-Transformation
Artist: Lucas Samaras (American (born Greece), Kastoria 1936–2024 New York)
Date: November 30, 1973
Medium: Instant internal dye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid SX-70)
Dimensions: Image: 3 1/8 × 3 1/16 in. (8 × 7.8 cm)
Sheet: 4 5/16 × 3 9/16 in. (11 × 9 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gift of Arnold and Milly Glimcher, 1986
Object Number: 1986.1244.1
Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Lucas Samaras
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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