Peter Kloehn is a lecturer in the Art History Department, School
of Visual Arts, New York; and also lectures a graduate course in
19th and 20th Century History of Photography, at New York
University.
Interest in art history altars prompted this photographic
project that began around 1985 while on a trip to Salvador, Bahia,
Brazil. There, he took his first photographs of Umbanda altars
resulting in the subsequent expansion of the project to the
present. He has always worked with anthropologists, primarily, with
Dr. Rita Segato of the University of Brasilia, but also with Dr.
Diana Brown of Bard College, New York, and Dr. Alejandro Frigerio
of the Catholic University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He has exhibited his photographs widely in the U.S.A. and in
Brazil and Argentina, and he is part of the collection and has
shown at the Brooklyn Museum, New York. Publications include:
Encyclopedia of African Art, Henry Louis Gates, 2005; Microsoft
African Encarta, 1998; Face of the Gods, Robert Thompson, 1993; and
others.
I am an instructor in the art department, at the School of
Visual Arts, and I also teach a graduate level course in the
History of Photography at NYU. It is my interest in art history
altars that prompted this project which began around 1985 while on
a trip to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. There, I took my first
photographs of Umbanda altars, resulting in the subsequent
expansion of his project to the present. I have always worked with
anthropologists, primarily, with Dr. Rita Segato of the University
of Brazilia, but also with Dr. Diana Brown of Bard College, and Dr.
Alejandro Frigerio of the Catholic University, Buenos Aires,
Argentina. I have exhibited my photographs widely in the
U.S.A. and also in Brazil and Argentina and I am part of the
collection and have shown at the Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Publications include: Encyclopedia of African Art. Henry Louise
Gates, 2005; Microsoft African Encarta, 1998; Face of the Gods,
Robert Thompson, 1993; and others.
Pai Victor
This near-twenty-year photographic altar project is in addition to
his work from graduate school forward which is a highly manipulated
and aestheticized photography involving color, pattern, and design
influenced by Matisse and Bonnard. This latter work has also been
extensively exhibited and is in the Davidson College collection and
the Sam Wagstaff/Getty Museum collection, and others.