Art & DesignFEB 16, 2022

William Mortensen - America's Greatest Visionary Photographic Artist Turns 125!

William Mortensen was born on January 27 1897 and died on August 12, 1965. This past January was his 125th birthday and is being celebrated internationally with exhibitions and other events, including a birthday party at the Heritage Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana California where his final resting place is.

It is only in the past decade or so, really since the advent of digital photography and photoshop, that the true genius of Mortensen's art, made in the 1920s and 1930s mainly, has come to be appreciated.

More info: whmcxxv.com

William Mortensen (1897 - 1965) "Ho Ho Off T the Sabbath" 1928

Manipulated photograph, courtesy the Gallery of Everything, London Mortensen would use multiple negatives and stencils and texture screens to create his images, which often depicted scenes of witches and demonic characters. Mortensen is clut like figure in the world of "goth" culture, but also highly respected for his technical proficiency.

William Mortensen's 125th Birthday cake was made by Annabella Pritchard, curator of the exhibition at the Heritage Museum of Orange County, Santa Ana California

Photography critic A.D. Coleman writes:

"The inclusion of William Mortensen in our current understanding of the history of photography marks an end to the long-term injustice done to the man and germinal work."

"Anathematized, ostracized, and eventually purged from the dominant narratives of 20th-century photography due to the biases of a small but influential cluster of historians, curators, and photographers, Mortensen plunged into an obscurity so deep that by 1980 most considered him unworthy of even a footnote."

"Regrettably, however, the neglect of Mortensen and his contributions in the last years of his life and for several decades thereafter resulted in the apparently haphazard dispersal of his archive: master prints, work prints, negatives, manuscripts, correspondence, notes... scattered and, for the most part, presumed lost. So we must cherish those salvaged bits and pieces that survive."

William Mortensen's "Marie Antoinette" as portrayed by silent film actress Nancy Cornelius in 1924 on display at the Heritage Museum of Orange County, near Mortensen's final resting place at Fairhaven Memorial Park

A venue that participated in the tribute to the artist includes the Heritage Museum of Orange County, which installed works in the museum as if they always belonged there, the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick in Cleveland Ohio, The Gallery of Everything in London, the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, and the Laguna Art Museum who hosted a panel discussion on the artist and who have the artists works on display in a group exhibition through April.

The artist is most well known for his spooky subject matter and for inventing and perpetuating photographic techniques that use multiple negatives to construct images that suspend the viewer's disbelief. But rather than exploit this technique to create novelty images that were popular in that tie, the artist used his methods to create a sublime and beautiful world that helped welcome photography into the realm of serious art.

William Mortensen (1897 - 1965) "Marie Antoinette and The Mirror" as portrayed by silent film actress Nancy Cornelius in 1924 on display at the Heritage Museum of Orange County

Much of Mortensen's art is NSFW, you'll have to find them on your own. In 1956, Mortensen and lay Curtis Publications (publisher of his book The Female Figure) were charged by United States Post Office with distributing 'lewd, lascivious and obscene" materials through the mail. Mortensen said:

"Honest artists are made to suffer for the sins of a few pipsqueak pornographers... the official mind seems to follow this highly questionable line of reasoning: some nudes are vile. This is a nude. Therefore, this is vile."

This comment is even more relevant in today's culture of social media, whereby platforms such as Facebook and Instagram ban users for posting art that even their own "community standards" allow for.

Enjoy the fantastic art of William Mortensen, the greatest visionary photographic artist you've probably never heard of!

Curator Annabella Pritchard with William Mortensen's 1928 photograph "The Old Hag" at the Heritage Museum of Orange County, Santa Ana. CA

William Mortensen "The Old Hag with Skull" 1928 photograph with texture screen on display at the Heritage Museum of Orange County

Self-portrait of William Mortensen and his first wife and muse Courtney Crawford from 1924 - 1925. On view at the Heritage Museum of Orange County, Santa Ana California. William Mortensen is buried nearby

William Mortensen "Preparation for the Sabbath" On display at the Heritage Museum of Orange County, Santa Ana, California

WHM CXXV William Mortensen at 125 exhibitions at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, Cleveland Ohio

William Mortensen "Circe" 1932 A depiction of Circe an enchantress and goddess in Greek mythology. On display at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, Cleveland

William Mortensen title unknown, a rare photograph of actress Fay Wray form the early 1920's amongst masks Mortensen made for silent films. On display at The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, Cleveland Ohio

William Mortensen "Fear" 1928 On view at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, Cleveland Ohio

William Mortensen "Human Relations 1932" . On view at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, Cleveland Ohio

William Mortensen "A Tantric Sorcerer" 1934. On view at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, Cleveland, Ohio

William Mortensen "A Vampire's Retribution" 1928 on view at The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, Cleveland, Ohio

William Mortensen "King of Kings" handmade book consisting of stills Mortensen took while on the set of Cecil B. Demille's 1927 film of the story of the last days of Jesus

Mortensen made 50 copies of this large-format book, one of which is in the collection of the Vatican in Rome. On display at the Museum of Fine Art, Houston.