Photo-Transformation, November 12, 1973

Description

Critic Peter Schjeldahl called painter, sculptor, performance artist, and photographer Lucas Samaras the “artist laureate of narcissism” for almost always making his own image the subject of his work. In 1973, Samaras began using a Polaroid SX-70 and found that he could use his fingers to alter the appearance of the developing image. With this method, he created highly expressionistic photographs that combined realistic detail with painterly aesthetics—an unusual style in a generation of Pop artists and documentary photographers.