Genius does not die, it simply evolves, it can not really be quashed or ignored for long. George Forss is a kind of Cinderella story, he was peddling his photographs on the street in New York City when David Douglas Duncan, the famous World War II photographer came walking by on the way to a meeting. Duncan was transfixed, the encounter would change George’s life forever.
In his book about George Forss, “New York, New York, Masterworks Of A Street Peddler, ” Duncan wrote that the street peddler’s setup had nailed him in mid-stride. He never got to his meeting. “Astonishment, disbelief, excitement, confusion and admiration held me captive while my eyes swept the vendor’s display of prints on a sidewalk between Madison and park Avenues in midtown New York. Almost every scene was a transfigured cliche of Manhattan. All of them were deluxe format and incredibly mounted. Some were masterpieces; the one beside my food was incredible. Promises of romance and the mystery of Greenwich Village lurked in the evening bloom behind the World Trade Center whose twin pylons of industrial power still shimmered in an aurora of sunllight – modern cathedral spires painted with silver against the threatening sky.”
Duncan and his book brought George Forss to the attention of the world – Time Magazine, the Today Show – and to the world’s premier photographers, who flocked to New York to find out how George mastered his evocative and powerful double and triple exposures. Fate and human nature did not work for George, when the towers came down his career seemed to collapse also, his fame faded, he left New York City for upstate New York, a survivor of a family riddled with brilliance and metal disturbance.
George could not play the game, he could not maneuver through the art scene, he could not market his own work or even understand all the fuss about it, he would rather talk to reporters about aliens than about his photographic genius, His work was hailed by Ansel Adams: “I have seen no photographs of recent years as strong and as perceptive”; Henri Cartier-Bresson: “I feel in these striking photographs the pulse of of a sensitive eye that is not overcast by ‘concepts”; Alfred Eisenstaedt: “Unbelievable! Great photographs of New York – This man can see!”; Yousuf Karsh: “Forss’s photographs are portraits that unveil the hidden face of the city, to reveal the magical innocence behind the grime – the surrealistic poetry behind the harsh reality;” Gjon Mili: “Majestic.”
George does not ever see himself as a genius, I think the idea frightens him. He will talk about settings all day, he has no ego at all. We talk a lot, and when he is pressed or confused, he goes almost immediately to the messages of the aiiens, who have helped him understand his world. He is a UFO Investigator, his investigations van has over 300,000 miles on it.
Life happens and a lot of life happened to George Forss, fame is fickle in America, and corporate publishing has little interested in stories of artistic genius – I know, I’ve tried to get George’s story published. George does not tell struggle stories, he does not speak poorly of his life. He was taken from his home as a young child and sent to an orphanage, he revered his mother Norma, who could not take care of him, she was also a brilliant photographer, she was bent level to the ground with arthritis at the end of her life, she died of a diabetic coma.
Digital photography has pushed the photographic masters to the edge of the culture, but George has never been discouraged, doesn’t lament the digital age, won’t quit. He opened an art gallery in Cambridge, N.Y., the Ginofor, he has just constructed a George Forss Theater Of The Arts inside this tiny space, he takes fabulous photos all the time (and is giving me some lessons) and is in a long and loving relationship with the gifted artist Donna Wynbrandt, a former street person in New York and other cities. He lives with his step-brother Mickey, a schizophrenic who suffered some brain damage in the 60’s. After he was released from his orphanage, George became an agoraphobic for nearly seven years, he never left his mother’s apartment. It is a wonder to watch George work, he builds his own lenses, puts a hood over his camera when he works, has a Rube Goldberg darkroom that is right out of Frankenstein.
I think the wheel is turning, I think George’s time is coming again. He is offering his newest masterpieces – taken in New York City a few weeks ago – for $65 plus shipping, the greatest bargain on the Internet, a wonderful gift for any photographer in the world.
What an opportunity for a new audience to find George and discover his genius, as Duncan did, as I did, as many others have.
George does not understand his life, he accepts it. He called me this morning in shock to say he had many, many orders for his new photograph of the New York City skyline, above after I posted it on this blog. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, one of his favorite phrases, “I better shut up.” No, George you don’t need to shut up. Time to start shouting. “I’m on a roll,” he said, heading out to the post office to buy some mailing envelopes for his photos. So he is.
You can see and buy his signed photos here.