BERGER, PAUL

Mathematics #57, 1976
Archival pigmented ink jet print
10 1/2 x 12 inches on 14 x 16 inch Somerset Velvet paper
Signed Edition of 50

(United States, b. 1948)

Paul Berger is best known as a pioneer of digital imagery exploration. Beginning in 1978 when he was hired to teach in the photography program at the University of Washington, Seattle, he has moved through successive generation of software and hardware. He has, however, maintained his pre-digital photographic interest, one of which is the relationship of image and text that he calls the "point of notation - where intelligence becomes graphic." Another interest, which he refers to as "the automation", is the idea of relinquishing some artistic authority to the tools the artist uses. Mathematics #57, 1976, a pre-digital exploration of both of these preoccupations, is a layered image of theoretical mathematical formulas made with a malfunctioning camera. Berger received his BFA from UCLA (1970) and his MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester (1973). He has received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowship awards.