VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
bruce katsiff: Nature Morte
This virtual exhibition highlights work from Bruce Katsiff’s Nature Morte series.
© Bruce Katsiff, Balancing Life, 1989, Platinum Palladium Print, 20 x 12 inches
Bruce Katsiff is an accomplished photographer whose poignant and varied work encompasses environmental portraiture, collage, and carefully curated constructions of bones and decay. Seeing elegance beyond the surface, Katsiff’s work reveals complexity and empathy as well as a virtuosity with camera and darkroom. His Platinum Palladium and Gelatin Silver prints made with a 20” x 24” view camera are a testament to the manner in which his work combines science with the magical and unknowable beyond the lens.
Katsiff earned his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and his MFA from Pratt Institute. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Katsiff has published two monographs on his work, with Nature Morte accompanying his solo exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum.
About the Artist
Born in Philadelphia where he attended Central High School, Bruce Katsiff went on to study photography at Rochester Institute of Technology and completed graduate work at Pratt Institute, earning BFA and MFA degrees. He also attended postgraduate studies at Oxford University. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries including the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. For 25 years, he taught photography and from 1989 to 2012 served as Director/CEO of the James A. Michener Art Museum.
© Bruce Katsiff, The Golden Section, 1986, Platinum Palladium Print, 12 x 20 inches
“Photographers believe in the power of vision. To see is to know. To photograph is to learn.
In the spring of 1983, I became fascinated with the carcass of a deer I found decaying in the woods across from my home in Lumberville. My camera will often follow my interests, and I began to photograph the animal as it melted into the earth. These early photographs started the series Natural Morte. As the work progressed, I brought my subjects into the studio and began to construct environments to be photographed. In the later work there is a narrative content beneath the visual organization.
While my subject matter might be unsettling for some, for me, the “creatures” that I record reveal the structure beneath the surface. Many of my subjects are not “born” until the death of their hosts. I find great beauty in my subjects. When the smoothness and finish of the outer surface is removed, the forms underneath hint at the mystery of life. Even the unseen elements of life reveal a design and grace that is beyond the reach of man’s ability to create and to understand.
These pictures intend to share with the viewer my discoveries of elegance and beauty in lives lived. ”
© Bruce Katsiff, Pieces of a Life, 1986, Platinum Palladium Print, 12 x 20 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, The Helix, 1987, Platinum Palladium Print, 20 x 12 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Sleep of Peace, 1988, Platinum Palladium Print, 22.5 x 30 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Barn Swallow’s Web, 2014, Platinum Palladium Print, 15 x 19 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Cabinet of Dr. Foto, 2015, Platinum Palladium Print, 20 x 24 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Night God, 1987, Platinum Palladium Print, 15.75 x 19.5 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Fish Story, 1990, Platinum Palladium Print, 20 x 12 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Flying Totem, 1987, Platinum Palladium Print, 20 x 12 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Dancing Feet, 2012, Platinum Palladium Print, 19.75 x 15.75 inches
PUBLICATION
NATURE MORTE
Amie Potsic interviewed Bruce Katsiff about his latest body of work Nature Morte, his works in the exhibition, Through the Lens, and his involvement within the art community.
Click below to listen to the full interview.
© Bruce Katsiff, Totem Pole Skulls, 2014, Platinum Palladium Print, 20 x 24 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Cover of Nature Morte: Photographs by Bruce Katsiff.
ESSAY
Nature Morte: Photographs by Bruce Katsiff
Written by Heather Campbell Coyle, Curator of American Art, Delaware Art Museum
“For the photographs in Nature Morte, Katsiff felt free to pick and choose the elements of straight photography that appealed to him: composing his images as full frames and printing with rich detail. He combined these modern methods with his postmodern directorial sensibility.” -Heather Campbell Coyle
Click here to read the full essay.
© Bruce Katsiff, Winged Equine,
Platinum Palladium Prints, 20” x 12”, 2012
CATALOG
Introduction written by Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs, Philadelphia Museum of Art
“Bruce’s photography, characterized by finely-crafted prints and a wondrous array of studio curiosities, reveals his love for the origins and history of the medium. Like Peale, he embraces art’s essential task to show us things in the world as well as its mysterious potential to transport us into imaginative realms.” -Peter Barberie