FORT MYERS, FLA.- Florida Southwestern State College is presenting "Jerry Uelsmann: Imagemaker" - a broad survey of more than 75 original photographs including never-before seen work - at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery. One of the most celebrated photographers of his generation, Uelsmann’s work has been the subject of major monographs and exhibited in more than 100 solo shows in the U.S. and abroad over the past five decades.

While Bob Rauschenberg famously focused on working in the "gap" between art and life, Jerry Uelsmann claims to work "out of himself" and often at "an almost precognitive level" - having "gradually confused photography and life." Employing as many as a dozen negatives and multiple enlargers to create a single photograph through complex and laborious darkroom techniques he pioneered in the 1950's and '60's, Uelsmann is internationally-renowned as the (pre-digital) master of composite imagery and photomontage. "The goal of the artist," according to Uelsmann, "is not to resolve life's mysteries, but to deepen them."

His photographs are in the permanent collections of the most prestigious museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Chicago Art Institute, the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Bibliotheque National in Paris, the National Museum of American Art in Washington, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the National Gallery of Canada, the National Gallery of Australia, the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto.

The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery was founded as The Gallery of Fine Art in 1979 on the Lee County campus of Florida SouthWestern State College/FSW (then Edison Community College). On June 4th 2004 the Gallery of Fine Art was renamed the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, to honor and commemorate our long time association and friendship with the artist. Over more than three decades until his death, the Gallery worked closely with Rauschenberg to present world premiere exhibitions including multiple installations of the ¼ Mile or Two Furlong Piece. The artist insisted on naming the space the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery (versus the “Robert Rauschenberg Gallery”) as it was consistent with the intimate, informal relationship he maintained with both our local Southwest Florida community and FSW.