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 in publications such as Art Papers, Perdiz Magazine, and The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (University Press of Mississippi). More recently, his photography appears in Time Magazine’s “The South Issue” (Aug 2018) and will be displayed in the Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s “New Southern Photography” exhibition in Fall 2018.
Do the Priest in Different Voices
My most profound childhood memory involves reading a family bible. The illustrations, mostly Baroque-era paintings, did not function as a mere visual embodiment of the text. Rather, the pictures communicated in a far more powerful language, evoking both comfort and trepidation. The words of the book provided little interest, but the imagery moved me to contemplate the unseen. It is the pictures I remember—not the words. The imbalance remains when I consider the possibility of a personal faith. While I am ambivalent towards the old established narratives, the semblance of the mythical in the mundane enthralls. I identify this conflict in the everyday: objects and situations that are alternately ineffable, laughable, and at times terrifying.
To view more of Maury Gortemiller’s work please visit his website.