Embrace Quirky Photography: A Guide to the Wild Side of John Gutmann

Master of the Unique and Unconventional

Come for coffee before you read.

Oh! Go brush your teeth! Blinking toothpaste, “Stomatol,” and toothbrush glamor up the skyline in Stockholm way back when. Photo by Matthew Bamberg

I believe that some of my best images have [the] ambiguity which is an essence of life. In this sense I am not interested in trying desperately to make Art but I am interested in relating to the marvelous extravagance of Life.— John Gutmann, San Francisco

John Gutmann, a renowned photographer, was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1933, the same year Adolf Hitler became Chancellor. This marked a dark period in German history, as civil rights were abolished, freedom of expression was suppressed, and mass arrests were carried out against those who opposed the Nazi regime.

In Germany, Gutmann had trained as a painter. His style: Facist.

Fascist art is art co-opted from Art Deco and similar to Bauhaus in its geometric form. Used primarily in architecture to create a streamlined aesthetic popular in the 1920s and 1930s.

His self-portrait is well known from a 2005 exhibition of his work at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, where he resided most of his time in the United States.