George Dunham

William Mortensen

William Mortensen began his photographic career taking portraits of Hollywood actors and film stills. He preferred the pictorialism style of manipulating photographs to produce romanticist painting-like effects. The style brought him criticism from straight photographers of the modern realist movement and, in particular, he carried on a prolonged written debate with Ansel Adams, who called Mortensen 'The Devil' and 'The Anti-Christ'. The Command to Look was one of William Mortensen's mostsought-after books, and has been out of print for over 50 years.

A Master Photographer's Method for Controlling the Human Gaze

The Command to Look

University of Arizona. Center for Creative Photography

Michael Dawson

A Revival

Michael Moynihan

A. D. Coleman

Larry Lytle

A retrospective of the grotesque, occult, and erotic art of William Mortensen includes essays on his life, works, techniques, and influence.

The Life and Art of William Mortensen

American Grotesque

William Mortensen

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