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A Few Words by
Phillip Perkis


MEXICAN PHOTOGRAPHS
1991-92

I set out now in a box upon the sea - C. Olson

The arena is Mexico. The rules are few and self-imposed -- one camera, one lens, one kind of film. No place exotic (far out Indians, etc.). No tourist hot spots (to avoid the cynicism of culture clash).

The means are a Guggenheim fellowship and a sabbatical from teaching. I remain grateful.

The problem is to push my photography yet another notch. The find new means to relate the inner to the outer, to describe and express simultaneously. To conceive and execute at the same moment (photography and jazz) and to do so with Spartan means.

It seems to me that Mexico is missing a layer of protection. Death is a fact that is experienced every day. Things are more direct that in Euro-American culture. Mexicans are more civilized in important ways. I don't believe they kill for money as readily as we do.

After the second trip (there were four) the picture started to take on a life of their own. I began to feel that my job was to be as attentive and receptive as possible (and of course quick). It became, as Marjorie Welish has said, a "collaboration with circumstance."

The pictures in many ways are unexpected now that I am the viewer. I would not have thought that many of them would be so funny. I had no idea I was so attracted to religious icons. The surreal quality is of course what brought me to Mexico in the first place.

This work is not documentary -- more that to the degree that all photographs describe.

The precision, vigour and sureness of this kind of thinking,
which has not its equal anywhere in life, filled him with something like melancholy.
- The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil


Resume of
Phillip Perkis


Born:		Boston, Massachusetts

Education:	San Francisco Art Institute, B.F.A., 1962
		Additional study with Minor White and Dorothea Lange


SOLO EXHIBITIONS

	1995	Gallery Taranto, New York
	1990	Central Park Dairy, New York
	1988	55 Mercer Street Gallery, New York
	1985	Photocollect, New York
	1984	Camera Obscura, Tel Aviv, Israel
	1982	Light Works, Syracuse, New York
	1981	White Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
	1977	Portland Art Institute, Portland, Maine
	1976	Nexus Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
	1972	Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
	1971	San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
	1966	Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

	1994	Under Surface, gallery onetwentyeight, New York
	1991	New York Stories, Douglas Drake Gallery, New York
	1990	Country in the City, Woodstock, New York
	1988	No Trumpets - no Swans, Puck Building, new York Curator
		 and Exhibition Artist
	1984	Seeing the Mid-East, Two-Person Show, Tom Zimmermann
		 Fine Arts Gallery, New Hope Pennsylvania
	1982	Photocollect, New York
	1981	Photografia Actual En Nueva York, Two-Person Show, 
		Guadalajara, Mexico
	1980	Photography, Recent Directions, Decordova Museum, 
		Lincoln, Massachusetts
	1977	Photographic Landscapes, George Eastman House, 
		Rochester, New York
	1976	50 American Photographers, Dallas Museum of 
		Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas
		A Camera in Common, Wheelock College, 
		Boston, Massachusetts
	1973	Landscape/Cityscape, Metropolitan 
		Museum of Art, New York
	1972	Five Photographers, Portland Art Museum, 
		Portland, Maine
	1971	Kindred Spirits, Rochester Institute of Technology, 
		Rochester, New York
	1970	Being Without Clothes, Massachusetts Institute 
		of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
	1969	U.S.A. In Your Heart, San Francisco Art 
		Institute, San Francisco, California
		Thirteen Photographers, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 
		New York
	1967	Twelve Photographers of the American Social 
		Landscape, Rose Art Museum, 
		Waltham, Massachusetts
	1966	Two-Person Show, San Francisco Art Institute, 
		San Francisco, California
	1964	Two-Person Show and Group Show, Fifth 
		Street Gallery, New York

GRANTS

	1991	John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship
	1978	National Endowment for the Arts
	1976	New York State Council on the Arts
	1971	New York State Council on the Arts


PERFORMANCE WORK

	1991	Reading, Tantrum Festival, Exit Art, New York
	1990	Performance Black and Jews in New York, 
		La Mama Theatre with Suzan Lori Parks: slides, 
		script, and performance
	1988	Poets Theatre Festival, St. mark's Church, 
		New York - Solo performance	Photographic 
		projections - Fear and Misery of a 
		Generation, Byrdcliff Theatre, Woodstock, New York
	1984	Photographic projections - The Major General's 
		Memories, Theatre for the New City, New York
	1982	Photographic projections - Madness of the Day, 
		Cafe la Mama, New York

PUBLICATIONS

	1993	Publicsfear - photographs from Mexico
	1992	Print Magazine - Coney Island Portfolio
	1988	The National Poetry Magazine of the Lower East Side
	1981	Contact Sheet, Lustrum Press
		Catalog for two-person show, Photografia Actual En 
		Nueva York, Guadalajara, Mexico
	1978	Warwick Mountain Series, Nexus Press - a monograph
	1977	Faces, Maddow, Ben, Chanticleer Press

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

		Addison Gallery of American Art; Dallas Museum of 
		Fine Arts; George Eastman House;
		Fogg Museum of Harvard University: The Getty Museum; 
		Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, 
		New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

	Present	Tenured Professor, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
		Teaching Graduate and Undergraduate Photography since 
		1969 Chairman, Photography Department, 1975-1984
	1988-89	Guest Artist, Cooper Union, New York
	1984	Visiting Artist Teacher, Camera Obscura, Tel Aviv, 
		Israel  - 6 months
	1971-72	Instructor, Graduate Photography, New York 
		University  - part-time
	1971	Instructor, Undergraduate Photography, City College 
		of New York  -  part-time
	1967-68	Instructor, Undergraduate Photography, New York Institute 
		of Technology  -  full-time
	1964-65	Wingaite Paine Teaching Fellow, Phillips Academy, 
		Andover, Massachusetts

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

	1993,'94   Primer Coloquio Internacional De 
		   Fotografia, University of Guadalajara, Mexico -
		   Featured Speaker
	1983,'89   Camera Obscura, Tel Aviv, Israel - curator of 
		   photographic exhibition and workshop
	1982	   New York State University, Fredonia
	1982	   Crealde Arts Center, Winter Park, Florida
	1981,'82   Montauk Photographic Workshop, Montauk, New York
	1978	   Nexus Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
	1976,'78   Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
	1976	   Peters Valley, Layton, New Jersey
	1973,'74   Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts
	1973	   New York State University, New Paltz
	1969,'70   San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
	1969	   Center of the Eye Aspen, Colorado
	1967	   Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
	1966	   Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

	1992	Commission from Print Magazine to 
		photograph Coney Island - Nov-Dec ‘92 issue
	1989	Commission from National Reliance Insurance 
		Company photograph New York
		and environs in color Commercial assignments
		since 1962 Clients include: ABC Television, 
		Angel Records, Borg Warner, CBS Television, Esquire 
		Television, New York Racing Association, New York 
		University, Prime Time Magazine, Print Magazine, 
		Sotheby's, Standard Oil, The New York Times Book 
		Review, The New York Times Promotion Art Department, 
		Vanity Fair Magazine, Westvaco