John Kayser
John Kayser (1922-2007) was born in North Dakota but spent much of his life in California. He served in the army briefly during World War II as an armorer and was later employed by an aerospace company in Los Angeles.
Starting in the 1960s, John Kayser created photographs and films that were only discovered after he died in 2007. His home and the streets of Los Angeles served as the backdrop for private rituals that reflected his fascination with delicate bodies in contact with a variety of materials, sometimes the most unexpected. It was as if the overwhelming weight these bodies could exert made them more alive, and thus more desirable.
Kayser made paintings and drawings, but it was in his photographs and 88 mm films that he was able to develop a distinctive visual language and explore his unique perception of female beauty. Kayser’s work has been exhibited at Galerie Susanne Zander (Berlin/Cologne) and Ampersand Gallery (Portland, Oregon). Ampersand Gallery has published two books of his work, Sitting and Rose. A monograph of Kayser’s photographs is forthcoming from Steidl-Miles in 2016.
His work has been exhibited at Delmes & Zander in Berlin and Cologne, Germany, Galerie Christian Berst in New York, US, FARAGO in Los Angeles, US, and The Journal Gallery in Brooklyn, US.
catalog published on the occasion of paris photo 2024
solo show john kayser
from november 7th to november 10th
texts: christian berst, bruno dubreuil
get the catalog: click here