Eric Cato
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About me
Eric Cato (EVC)
"When you look at a wall spotted with stains or with a mixture of stones . . . you may discover: landscapes, mountains, figures in action; or strange faces–an endless variety of objects . . . like the sound of bells in whose jangle you may find any name or word you choose to imagine.” – Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
Imago ignata (unknown image) is a Latin term for a pattern of colors, shapes or words that have no correspondence to the world of external reality. These images are of random paint, graffiti, faded handbills, and weathered surfaces, found on walls, lampposts, and doors in the streets of New York, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles. Nonrepresentational imagery is generally believed to be the domain of painting. Although I use a camera to make these images, I have come to think in terms of an individual image, rather than whether it is a painting, a collage, or a photograph. By photographing an object and cropping out any reference to its physical context, it is “abstracted” and transformed into an intangible realm of color, energy, mood, and mystery. I photograph commonplace, and consequently, “invisible” surfaces as a means of probing my imagination.
Education and activities
- Biography
I am a visual artist and use a camera to make the images. While I have had some formal training, I consider myself to be self-taught. Both of my parents were artists and I had the opportunity to listen and participate in discussions about art and creativity with many of their friends, including photographers: Richard Avedon, Ernst Haas, Irving Penn, Hiro and painters Michael Goldberg, Larry Rivers, and Norman Blum.
While I have worked as an editorial and commercial photographer, primarily in celebrity portraits, publicity, and fashion, I now concentrate exclusively on my personal work.- Exhibitions
on website
My favourites
- Artist
Basquiat; Matisse; Schwitters; de Kooning; Max Ernst; Paul Klee; Salgado; Cartier-Bresson; Bill Brandt; Guy Bourdin; I really love Chinese and Japanese painting and calligraphy.
- Movie
Fanny and Alexander [Swedish TV]; Berlin Alexanderplatz; Kurosawa; Deadwood
- Literature
Favorite book? that's too hard
- Music
Peter Gabriel, Steely Dan, Miles, Hendrix
- Interests
Environmental and climate activist
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