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About the Artist
James Welling (b. 1951 in Hartford, CT) is regarded as one of the most influential photographers of his generation. Known for his genre-defying work, Welling has also made a significant impact through his decades of teaching at institutions like UCLA and Princeton. After studying at CalArts in the 1970s, where he was influenced by artists such as Michael Asher, Douglas Huebler, and John Baldessari, Welling developed a conceptual approach to photography. He later became part of the Pictures Generation, a group of artists in New York who redefined photography by introducing new methods such as appropriation. This set of photographs is from an early series that has been widely exhibited and is considered central to his exploration of the nature of photography itself. Welling used black ink infused gelatin as a parallel to black-and-white photography’s own reliance on silver suspended in gelatin.