Image of the Day
Specially curated
365 Days, 365 Images
of National/International
Photographers
An Image a Day
Let us engage with this
Fascinating Medium that
Breaks all boundaries
Mary’s Middle Class © Les Krism 1985 | Image source internet
Les Krism
Leslie Robert (Les) Krims (1942) is a conceptualist photographer living in Buffalo, New York. He is noted for his carefully arranged fabricated photographs (called “fictions”), various candid series, a satirical edge, dark humor, and long-standing criticism of what he describes as leftist twaddle. His controversial images resembling tableaus deal with taboos surrounding sex, race, and consumer culture. He often portrays nudes in unusual, shocking, or comical situations as seen in his photobook Making Chicken Soup (1972).
Born Leslie Robert Krims on August 16, 1942 in Brooklyn, NY, he attended the Cooper Union for his BFA and later received his MFA from Pratt Institute. After finishing his degree, Krims began teaching photography first at the Rochester Institute of Technology and then Buffalo State College where he has been a professor for over 40 years and has mentored students such as Cindy Sherman. The artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in Brooklyn, the George Eastman House in Rochester, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, among others. Krims continues to live and work in Buffalo, NY.
Les Krims has published numerous offset works. In his portfolio The Deerslayers (1972), Krims took pictures of deer hunters who had voluntarily stopped at “deer check stations” so that NYS conservationists could examine the general health of the deer. Pictured posing with their kills, Krims suggested the hunters had much in common with performance art and odd manifestations of sculpture. He also attempted to underscore the American nature and long tradition of deer hunting as one aspect of criticism of animal rights and anti-Vietnam War activists.
In The Little People of America (1971), Krims received permission to photograph people belonging to a national organization founded by the actor Billy Barty, called “The Little People of America.” Many of the pictures were made at national conventions of the L.P.A, in Oakland, CA, and Atlanta, GA. Krims sought to show that the people he photographed were brave, normal people, having more in common with the Mid-West than the Upper-West-Side, unlike the way the dwarf was portrayed in the history of art or contemporary photographs.
In The Incredible Case Of The Stack O’Wheat Murders (1972), Krims both parodies forensic photography, and points to it as a remarkable archive of incredible and moving images (the various, successful CSI television series attests to his prescience). In each “Wheats” crime scene, a Stack O’Wheats (pancakes) is placed near each “victim” (he used friends and family to pose for the pictures). Each stack is topped with pats of butter and syrup, the number of pancakes in the stack signifying the number of the crime. Hershey’s chocolate syrup was used to simulate blood in the photos, which was formed into words and celestial shapes. Krims originally included 8 ounces of Hershey’s syrup in a heat-sealed plastic bag with the original print portfolio, as well as “enough pancake mix to make one complete Stack O’ Wheats”.
In Making Chicken Soup (1972), Krims published pictures of his mother preparing her traditional chicken soup recipe, while nude. These pictures were published as a small book, some say giving rise years later to the popular Chicken Soup series. The book contained a dedication, which underscored the real point of the satire: “This book is dedicated to my mother and concerned photographers, both make chicken soup.” Krims felt that “socially concerned” photography was a palliative, just as the chicken soup was—in the long run, an ineffective remedy for serious disease.
In Fictocryptokrimsographs, published in 1975, Krims used a Polaroid SX-70 camera to make a series of 40, titled pictures. The SX-70 was chosen, because of the ability to literally move and work the not yet dry, viscous, film emulsion much like paint after the picture developed. Included are various odd and humorous pictures, which are often puns or parodies of fashion trends.
Krims has also steadily been adding pictures to an overarching project spanning three decades called, “The Decline of the Left.” His works are exhibited in the U.S. and internationally.
Published on March 1, 2021
See All Image of the Day | 365 days, 365 images
Share
Related Posts
Ethiopia Project | David Goldman
David Goldman is an American photographer. A 1998 graduate of the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in Spanish, Goldman’s first job was as a staff photographer at the weekly North County Independent newspaper, in Rhode Island.
Kuda et Sky II | Nick Brandt, Kenya 2020
Nick Brandt (born 1964) is an English photographer. The themes in Nick Brandt’s photographic series always relate to the destructive impact that humankind is having on both the natural world and now humans themselves too.
Untitled Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt Photography
Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt (1947-2015) was a Belgian photographer. He co-founded Agence VU’ with Christian Caujolle in 1986. He is represented by the Gallery Camera Obscura in Paris. Belonging to the tradition of reportage and the “decisive moment”, his works have been widely published. His personal works include Belgian competitions and Immigrants in his country.
Untitled | Jean-Marie Donat
Jean-Marie Donat (born in 1962) lives and works in Paris where he runs the independent creative editorial agency AllRight. For over 35 years he has been gathering a vast photographic collection of vernacular photographs focused on delivering a singular reading of the 20th century.
Acts of Appearance | Gauri Gill, 2015
Gauri Gill (born 1970) is an Indian photographer who lives in New Delhi. Gill earned a BFA (Applied Art) from the College of Art, New Delhi; BFA (Photography) from Parsons School of Design/The New School, New York and MFA (Art) from Stanford University, California.
Cuba by Raúl Cañibano
Raúl Cañibano Ercilla is based in Havana. He was born in 1961. One of the younger generation of photographers born after the Revolution, his work focuses on people, everyday life, history and socialism. He has exhibited world-wide and won a major prize in Cuba for a project on the life of rural workers.