The photograph so far

Jim Dine became truly excited about the possibilities of photography when he realized that the medium offered the opportunity to quickly and directly access his unconscious, something he seeks to do in all of his art-making. Regardless of which media Dine is working in, he maintains More…a familiar but ever-expanding repertory of images: tools, hearts and a torso of Venus, plus the more recent iconography of crows, skulls, a Pinocchio doll, and an odd-couple ape and cat. As with his paintings, sculptures and graphic work, for which he is better known, Dine seeks to record his physical and emotional presence concretely, not gesturally. The camera is but one of the many tools he has at his disposal for making such pictures. This refusal to privilege one method over another helps explain how, in the space of only six or seven years, Dine has managed to produce such a large number of haunting photographic images that remain consistent with the tenor of his art as a whole while expanding its technical repertoire and range of possibilities. Though he has been making art for over four decades, producing paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, as well as performance works, stage and book designs, poetry and even music, Dine has only been working with photography since 1996. Using heliogravure and digital ink-jet processes as well as conventional color and black-and-white photographic printing, Dine imbues his photographs with an intensity that is occasionally traumatic but invariably beautiful. This catalogue raisonné marks the first comprehensive publication on the photographs of Jim Dine.