Maury Gortemiller

Maury Gortemiller is an Atlanta-based photographer and educator. His work has appeared in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA), the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center and the Aperture Foundation Gallery in New York. Atlanta’s Fall Line Press published a signed, limited edition series of Gortemiller’s images as part of the Free Fall series. He also writes on photography and contemporary art issues, most recently in Art Papers, Perdiz Magazine and The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (University Press of Mississippi). Finally, Gortemiller is also a competitive apneist, and plans to make an attempt on the underwater breath-holding world record by the end of the fiscal year 2019.

I Can No Longer Distinguish Between My Dreams and Vain Illusions (Page 341)

What Makes You Think Beautiful Men Have Heard of You? (Page 95)

I’d Be Better Off Fragmented (Page 200)

Make Believe

The images in the series “Make Believe” are in direct response to Donald Trump’s 1987 book The Art of the Deal. While Trump’s personality and reputation certainly form a considerable presence in the work, the images are not meant to refer specifically to the President or the present political climate. Rather, the work is, at times, intended to lampoon the braggadocio and surliness of the authorial voice. In other instances, images evoke human qualities that I identify as absent or lacking in the book: a capacity for wonder, humility, and a recognition of one’s shortcomings. Each image title derives from one specific page of the book via a Dadaist “cut-up” approach, in which words and phrases are decontextualized, reordered and repurposed. Ultimately, I intend the images and reconfigured text as an antidote and corrective to unbridled egotism and nationalism.

As the image titles are integral to the work, they have been included below each image.

I Was Handed a Message – How Fragile You Are (Page 361)

Good Security Eliminates Surprise (Page 14)

My Father was Ambitious at Night and Better With His Hands Than Most (Page 67)

In the Supermarket, I Envisioned a City of Unobstructed Views (Page 334)

Come in Close – I Offer a High Yield (Page 254)

A Good Fire will Destroy a Beautiful Apartment (Page 252)

You Can Con the American People with a Smile (Page 60)

To view more of Maury Gortemiller’s work please visit his website.