Artist Statement
Several years ago, while paging through albums of family photographs, I was struck by the realization that many of the pictures that were bringing back strong memories occurred before I was born, or at times or places I was not present. These memories were vivid, yet were indeed false memories. Fascinated with how many of our recollections can be attributed to a photograph, dream or story as opposed to an actual experience, I began to cull imagery from archives of family photographs and personal work.
My work explores the intersections of personal and collective memories, particularly as they relate to photography, and is a merging of the autobiographical and the universal. Many of my photographs are intensely personal yet speak to a common experience. As my work has progressed, the lines between experience and invention have become even more diffused.
Seen and Not Seen is the culmination of eight years of work. What began as a number of separate series evolved into a single, unified body.
I aim to make work that is at once true and fictitious, remembered and reconstructed, seen and not seen.
Process Statement
All of my prints prints are split-toned silver-gelatin prints. The images are manipulated in the darkroom, and are made from a negative shot in a traditional film based camera. No images have been digitally produced or altered. Each photograph is individually printed on fiber-based paper and is processed to archival standards. Although printed in an edition, each print is unique: all photographs are individually toned using multiple toners, and toners and other chemicals are often selectively applied with a brush. Exhibition prints are on 16”x20” paper (15”x15” image size).
Ken Rosenthal’s artwork is represented by a number of galleries in the US, including Klompching Gallery, NY; Etherton Gallery, Tucson; Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe; Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco. His photographs are in many public and private collections internationally including The George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Art Institute of Chicago; National Portrait Gallery, London; Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; and the Wittliff Collections’ Southwest and Mexican Photography Collection, San Marcos, Texas, which recently established a major collection of his work. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Klompching Gallery, NY; Etherton Gallery, Tucson; De Santos Gallery, Houston; Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires; Espacio Foto, Montevideo, Uruguay, among other venues. Rosenthal’s first publication, Photographs 2001-2009, was released in October 2011. A hardbound limited edition with a toned silver print, designed and produced by Cloverleaf Studios & Press, was released in the spring of 2012.
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