Scott Mutter

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Scott Mutter
Born	1944 Park Ridge, Illinois
Died	March 8, 2008
Nationality	American
Education	BA History University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Occupation	Photographer
Parents	Charles and Lucille Mutter

Scott Mutter (1944–2008) was an American photographer best known for the use of photomontage. Born to Charles and Lucille Mutter of Park Ridge, Illinois, he graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1961. Mutter received a B.A. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1966 and a master's degree in Chinese studies in 1968.

Most of his work was done with images of and around the Chicago area with some of his earlier pieces incorporating scenes from Urbana-Champaign. Mutter was never comfortable with being considered a surrealist and coined the term "Surrational Images" to more accurately describe his work.^[1]

Mutter never transitioned to the cut and paste technique afforded by Photoshop and similar software but recreated every original print in the darkroom as he thought this was the only way that they were truly "originals".^{[citation needed]} From the few existing originals of each piece he would select the one he considered the most appropriate for reproduction as posters.

Mutter created a world of his own through photography. According to Cassandre Creswell "he is known for his images rather than his words".^[2]

Mutter says he never had any background in art. He did not have any classes in art. He did not have any particular interest in art and had never held a camera in his hand, even though for two different summers in college he went to Europe." Mutter has jumped from an interest in Chinese history to film-making and photography.

His work has been exhibited across the world, such as, the San Francisco International Airport, and at the opening of the Beam Performing Arts Center in Tokyo. Furthermore, his photographs have appeared in magazines and newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, Herbert's, Japanese Avenue, and Print Magazine.

Through his images, Mutter wants to represent something that is reality, but not a physical reality. It's a type of reality that is a representation through a way we are metaphorically. He began to figure out what type of visual form he was going to constitute in his work. Mutter did an immense amount of research on the work of Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein.

Eisenstein, a Russian filmmaker (1898-1948) and author of two books, "The Film Sense" and "Film Form: Essays in Film Theory" greatly influenced Mutter's ideas about photographic "montage", a technique of combining and superimposing images into a single picture. Mutter believes "there are theoretical reasons why a montage works or is something. But you have to also understand and keep your mind open to the fact that what works, works. That's the bottom line."

[edit] Bibliography

• "Surrational Images: Photomontages" (ISBN 0-252-01935-0) Foreword by Martin Krause

[edit] References