Photographers - Part 73

Rolf Koppel

Rolf Koppel was born in Germany in 1937.  In 1939 his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany, immigrating to the U.S. in 1941.  Koppel graduated from Hunter College in New York in the 1950s, where he was mentored by Robert Motherwell.

Koppel has produced a rich collection of mostly black-and-white photos.  His work contains a large number of nude self-portraits, like Self Portrait Reclining, 1987, above.

The 1989 self-portrait above is called Artist and Model.  He is holding a small mirror so we can see his face.  This photo was used on the cover of his 2000 book Soliloquy, a book of self-portraits.

Another self-portrait from the book Soliloquy doesn't quite show the goods.

But this self-portrait from Soliloquy definitely does.

Above, Angel, 1987, from the New Mexico Museum of Art.  I'm guessing this is not a self-portrait, since it would be strange to call a self-portrait Angel.

Winged Boy, 1990s, is definitely not a self-portrait.  Disclosure: I brightened the photo because the original was so dark almost nothing was visible.

He is One of Those Eternal Servants, 1993, another Koppel photo from that era.

Then Koppel discovered Will Light Johnson, an artist and fellow photography enthusiast.   Homework II, 1999, above, was signed "Rolf Koppel + Will."

Koppel's 2012 book Basement Arcade consists entirely of nude photos of Koppel and Will.  That's Will on the cover.

We end with the photo Will in Gladiolas, 2005.  Rolf Koppel and Will Johnson are now married and live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.