Layered Portraits Capture Memories of Famous Faces

Seattle-based photographer Doug Keyes likes to collect art books. “They convey ideas in a concrete way and at a pace that suits me,” he tells The Creators Project. To create new readings of pop culture icons, master artists, and famous paintings, he flips through them, bookmarks the images he likes, and then photographs or scans the pictures into multilayered compositions. Now, at New York’s Klompching Gallery, Keyes’ experiments in using repeating images comes to life in new solo exhibition, Portrait.

“When we think of a person it’s not a static, flat impression,” he says. “We live in time and space, always moving, always inputting new data.” The idea for Portrait evolved from a Chuck Close catalog Keyes had photographed in 1998 for a previous series called Collective Memory. After layering Close’s portraits into a single image, he began thinking of how this technique could transform other images. He became more curious about how he could keep capturing an artist’s body of work into a single photograph.

Perhaps, he adds, memories themselves look a bit like his works—and if the videos made from recreated thoughts are any indication, he might be right. “My ultimate goal is to create an image in the same way I think our brain records the world: a collection of layered images over time, not individual snapshots of moments.” Whether the source material is a pop culture icon like Kim Kardashian or an artist like Frida Kahlo, see how Keyes captures time in a single portrait, below: 

Picasso, 2014, Pigment Print 20×14. 

Chuck Close, B&W, 2014, Pigment Print, 30×25

Kim Kardashian, 2014, Pigment Print, 8×6

Cindy Sherman, 2014, Pigment Print, 21×16

Madonna and Child, 2014, Pigment Print, 17×12. 

Rembrandt, 2014, Pigment Print, 24×18

Humans of New York, 2014, Pigment Print, 20×14

Frida Kahlo, 2012, Pigment Print, 20×14

Thomas Ruff, 2014, Pigment Print, 12×9

Nick Cave, 2014, Pigment Print, 32×25

Doug Keyes’ Portrait will be on view at the Klompching Gallery from March 5 to April 11, 2015.

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