Russell L. Drisch (b. 1944)

In the age of digital imagery, it can be hard to remember when film-based photography was an art medium. If you look at the 1973 Whitney Biennial exhibition catalog, for example, you find art ranging from photo-realism to geometric abstraction, minimalist painting to enormous site-specific earthworks. No prescribed practice was dominant. Russell Drisch became known for spare or cropped photographic images of such subjects as glass block windows, a ceiling corner, or potted palms. His gelatin silver prints (commonly known as black and white photographs) were hand-tinted in the palest shades of the iconic primary color trio—red, yellow, and blue (or cyan)—from which all colors are mixed. Thus, he paid homage to the essential elements of photography within a minimalist approach utilizing both traditional and contemporary strategies. Interpretation is subjective. We have been told this is a kind of self-portrait. (NW)