After the death of his wife Carol in 1958, Joseph-
son relocated to Chicago and began graduate stu-
dies at the Institute of Design (ID) of Illinois
Institute of Technology, where Harry Callahan
and Aaron Siskind were teaching. ID had been
started by La ́szlo ́ Moholy-Nagy in 1937 as the
‘‘New Bauhaus,’’ and it educated students in mo-
dernist aesthetics that stressed a formalist metho-
dology and encouraged experimentation. Whether
it was because of his talented instructors, the inno-
vative curriculum, or such fellow students as Joseph
Jachna, Ray Metzker, Joseph Sterling, and Charles
Swedlund, his career took off as his talents in pho-
tography became noticed. In 1960, he received his
M.S. from ID and was offered a position as the first
photography instructor at The School of the Art
Institute of Chicago (SAIC). In 1962, he was one
of the founding members of the Society for Photo-
graphic Education (SPE). In 1964, Josephson was
included inThe Photographer’s Eyeat the Museum
of Modern Art, New York, which traveled around
the world, and by 1966 he had his first solo exhibit-
ion in Stockholm at the Konstfackskolan.
Josephson easily adopted the ‘‘straight’’ style
taught by Callahan and Siskind, now known as
‘‘Chicago School’’ and identified by crisp details,
dramatic lighting, and abstract design. He was
trained in multiple printing, montage, collage, and
about the photograph as fine art and as a physical
object, but since 1960 has basically followed the
same practice, summed up in the following:
The heart of the method is this: A clue from one photo-
graph would develop into an idea for another. At times
the subject matter suggested a method of working and
vice versa. Sometimes I would seek out some specific
subject matter with a planned picture in mind, but as I
became involved with the subject a very different pic-
ture would result.... The best procedure for me to follow
is to involve myself completely with a number of pro-
blems, then move from one to another, and return to
each for the purpose of re-evaluation. This time lapse
period was the most important factor of this procedure.
(White, Minor, ed., ‘‘Five Photography Students from
the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology,’’
Aperture9, 2 (1961), n. pag. Ill.)Polapans1973, a black-and-white print of a light
bulb with four polaroids taped below, is a fitting
example of his method, first because his subjectis
photography, second because each Polaroid glows
brighter and nearer, and third because of the witty
image of the bulb representing the idea.
HisMultiple Imagemethod allowed him to al-
ternate between conceptual, nude, still-life, and
‘‘street’’ photography. Part of the time, he concen-
trated on high contrast photographs of pedestrians
in the shadows of Chicago’s elevated trains dabbled
with bright light. At other times, he crossed over
between series combining a nude image as part of a
larger image, such asSally, 1976. Since 1964, he has
been placing ‘‘Images within Images’’ and photo-
graphing ‘‘Marks and Evidence,’’ names given by
Josephson to two of his series. Since 1967, he has
been intervening in his photographs by placing such
things as his arm, shadow, or reflection in the frame
before shooting. Repeatedly questioning the
assumed givens of photography and reality became
his preferred subject, requiring the viewer to figure
out his pictures.
Josephson was one of the early pioneers of Con-
ceptual art. For example, before the English artist
Richard Long photographed a trace left by his walk-
ing on grass and called it art, Josephson photo-
graphed a similar trace he found by chance see
Wisconsin, 1964. Since 1968, he has collaged post-
cards, black-and-white and color photographs often
fragmenting space, such asIllinois, 1970, pre-dating
the multi-perspective collage work of David Hock-
ney. The technique of collage was only a step away
from assemblage, and after 1970 Josephson made
three-dimensional objects which included photo-
graphs, such asAnissa’s Dress, 1970.
Without a doubt, Josephson’s photography deals
with intellectual issues; however, a significant yet
subtle aspect of his work is its humorous, sometimes
surreal, content, which deals with the paradoxes of
everyday life, with the gap between the second and
third dimensions, and with the medium of photogra-
phy itself. For example, his ‘‘History of Photogra-
phy’’ series (begun 1970) takes a look at signature
works by renowned photographers from an often
humorous point of view, such asChicago, 1978, a
version of Edward Steichen’s 1926 portrait of Gloria
Swanson, which shows, instead of the movie siren’s
veiled face, bare buttocks beneath a lacy veil. Other
examples are found in conceptual works such asThe
Bread Book, 1973, an artists’ book composed of
shots of the fronts and backs of each of the slices
in a loaf of bread, bound in the order in which the
loaf was cut. And last, but not least, his transforma-
tional, still-life photographs of paper bags and books
from the early 1960s and 1988.
In 1972, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship,
and in 1975 and 1979 National Endowment for the
Arts fellowships that gave him the opportunity to
travel. In the late 1970s he traveled in India, expand-
ing his ‘‘street’’ series to include another culture and
acknowledging his continuing interest in the intuitive
work of Garry Winogrand and Henri Cartier-Bres-
son. After 1984, Josephson became interested inJOSEPHSON, KENNETH