The Deerslayers

The Deerslayers

from 'The Deerslayers' 1972

I could say that this was the first book to enter the 'Covering Photography' collection, but the fact is that I bought it years before I had the idea to catalog book covers. It caught my eye because on the cover were four photos from Les Krims' Deerslayers portfolio; about as unlikely a group of pictures as I'd ever expect to find on book, even a book of poetry published by a small press. Krims, though still alive and presumably well, has practically faded into obscurity in today's art and photgraphy world, making crucial the need to acknowledge how strong his influence was on many photographers who came of age in the late 1960's and early 1970's. One might reasonably credit Krims and Duane Michals for practically inventing (or, at the very least, updating) the 'Directorial Mode' of set-up and conceptually based photography which flourished in the '80's and continues today (Krims taught photography at Buffalo College, and was quite well-known in western New York State art circles). It's difficult for me to imagine that his set-up 'photo fictions' were not a seminal influence at the time on a young art major at SUNY Buffalo named Cindy Sherman, though to my knowledge she has not acknowledged this publicly.