Remembering PhotoMontage Artist, Scott Mutter

It’s been nearly two years now since Scott Mutter passed, and out of the blue I started thinking about him last night.

While Photomontage has been traced back to the mid 1850′s, Scott Mutter was a modern day master of the art. His photomontages always provoked strong responses: curiosity, awe, laughter and contemplation.

I can remember how distinctly honored I felt the first time Scott invited me into his home. For me, it was like sitting in the private lair of some great composer – Scott was an incredibly genuine and gentle man. He immediately made you feel at perfect ease.

Scott was an extremely old-school photographer/artist. Everything was done by hand in his home studio and darkroom. He once told me that he “didn’t trust computers”, though he showed me an unread copy of the “Photoshop Bible” that he promised to read one day.

When I was still pretending to be an artist, I asked Scott if he’d consider shooting my paintings so that I could share them on the Internet. Scott readily agreed. He told me that he didn’t have a digital camera, so I‘d have to have the images converted. He also “warned” me that he wasn’t a very good photographer, and not to expect any miracles.

On the day of the shoot, Scott came armed to the teeth with four cameras, six lenses and three tripods. He was sporting his most comfortable shoes and a loose-fitting pair of shorts, “for maximum bend ability”, as he put it.

Scott called me over to his house when the images had returned from the lab. We walked through each picture one-by-one together. With the passing of each photograph, Scott would comment: “I got the lighting wrong on that one, I should have tightened-up on this one, and I really should have used a different lens for this piece”.

Can you image… one of the greatest photomontage artists of our day critiquing his own photographs of my crappy abstract art! What a wonderful memory.

Scott promised to be the very first photographer in my then conceptual idea for an online art gallery, DiscoveredArtists.com.

I miss you deeply, Scott. I wish that I could have been there to protect you. I will always remember you and will take pause to think about you from time to time.

In honor of you, your memory and your wonderful work, I am sharing a few of your pieces with anyone who chooses to stop and have a look.

Brian Walker
Owner, DiscoveredArtists.com