I know, I know….
I already wrote a piece on Les Krims. But as Les Krims told me in an email, (which I was very honored to receive), “... I regularly exhibit, am represented by a couple of galleries in Europe, work hard, still live in Buffalo, NY (A failed border town where the stank of government cheese meets the E.coli scented Lake Erie breeze), and have completed a new book sampling pictures from the last 52-years.” His near poetic editorial honesty about Buffalo,…a town he has almost become synonymous with artistically,… actually illustrates the mind of a consummate artist. Yes, a photographer,…but so much more. I doubt even the most jaded of editors would ever refer to his work as “just a photograph”.
8×10 to SX-70 – Maxi to Mini
Les Krims was born in 1942. He is a photographer you either love or hate. His intricately staged sets of props and people with layer upon layer of details. Ad infinitum. In 2005, a Photo Poche monograph, “Les Krims” edited by Robert Delpire, was published by Actes Sud, in France. Most of his work was done with 8 x 10 camera, but of course the “Fictcryptokrimsographs” series was done with an SX-70. Basically because the emulsion is not dry and is subject to ‘artistic’ manipulation. So, his tools of choice are less important than the image. He now has his own website, where he sells inkjet prints the public can purchase. As he’s said “digital printing technology and capitalism make it possible to own the means of production, rendering moot wall-to-wall delusional Marxist posturing in the culture community.” Hence, click the link below and own an actual ‘Les Krims’ print! I actually wish more artists/photographers would make prints/signed prints available to the general public.
Les Krims is also adding pictures to a 3 decades project called, “The Decline of the Left.” Remember, what you are looking at is film. Images that were produced way before Photoshop was even a twinkle in the eye of Thomas Knoll. Or his parents, for that matter. And if someone were to ask me, I wouldn’t find it a stretch of the imagination to think a David LaChapelle , and others, drew inspiration from the prolific well of Les Krims.
Les Krims Exhibitions
Les Krims has been exhibiting and lecturing since the 70s. Including exhibits resulting in protests, stonings and kidnappings! Or as the Chicago Tribune remarked in a 1985 article, “In The Wicked World Of Les Krims, More Spells Trouble”. And as you can see from his most recent exhibitions below, Les Krims is still quite involved and busy;
2017 – The Hobbyist – Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland, September 9, 2017—February 11, 2018
2016 – Performing for the Camera – Tate Modern, London, England, February 18—June 12 2016
Books, Portfolios, Books, Portfolios
If there was ever a time to search out and acquire Les Krims books and limited edition portfolios, it’s now. Including ‘Making Chicken Soup’, ‘The Little People of America’, ‘Fictcryptokrimsographs’, ‘The Incredible Case of the Stack O’Wheats Murders’, ‘The Deerslayers. A Limited Edition Folio’, ‘Idiosyncratic Pictures’, ‘Porsch Rainbows’. Check out the link below to see more work. I cannot guarantee that the above links will result in ‘hits’. Some books out of print, some are getting quite rare, and most folios require a concerted effort to find.