FRANCIS C. FUERST

Beautiful series by photographer Francis Carl Fuerst. Published for Time Magazine in 1957.

"Francis Fuerst made this series about an 'imaginative cobbler's daughter named Assuntina, who had always wanted to be a dancer' in the surroundings of San Gimignano in Italy.

When she was through, onlooking village oldsters sagely ventured that her weird poses looked at least as much like whirling ballerinas as the trees did themselves."


Not much information is available on Fuerst. Some journal & google-scouring reveals that he was published in National Geographic and Time/Life magazines. ETC. Beyond his editorial and documentary work, probably commissioned, he also produced several personal, more conceptual bodies of work.

These quirky portraits, for instance, and other composite visuals were created by the superimposition of negatives (remember those); these are from his Ecce Homo Sapiens series-

Several portraits were rendered in this style as well, with an attempt to expose "a kind of psychological characterization of the different personalities".

Marlene Dietrich

 
Pablo Picasso

salt-crystal photograms-

"carnival of dogs"

 
"cavallieri in time"

and various geometric abstract compositions, again working with negatives-

"mumie"

Apparently over 4,000 negatives are housed in private collections (?). Among these, a 6x6mm series depicting "an octopus in various positions and labeled with the titles linked to images of dance (Hexentanz, Shiva's dance, Sterbender Schwan, etc.)".

can u share please...?

Assuntina via biekie.com

Massimo Palazzi for everything else