What Does a Philosopher Look Like?

A J Ayer, London, 5 October 1988 © Steve Pyke

From issue 55 of The Philosopher’s Magazine, Cynthia Freeland wrote an essay on Steve's Philosophers series. The essay can be seen on the Talking Philosophy blog and raises interesting questions of the portraits Steve has been making since the late 80's.

Noam Chomsky, Boston, 29 May 1990 © Steve Pyke

Head over to the blog post itself to read all the comments from contributors and add your own opinions.

Rebecca Kukla commented:

"Perhaps it’s because I’ve spent my whole life among philosophers but I find these shots deeply ‘appetizing’ for the most part. These are character-filled, thoughtful, real faces, and most of the pictures make me want to talk to that person"

Philosophers book Pre-Order

UPDATE:

The new 'Philosophers' books is available to pre-order in the UK from Amazon here
And in the US from Amazon here

Alternatively you can go direct to the publisher: Oxford University Press, and pre-order from there

Installation images from 'Philosophers' show at Flowers Gallery New York

Here are a few images from the installation of work and a contact sheet mural for the 'Philosophers' show at Flowers Gallery New York. The opening night is this Thursday 19th, and will be open until the 18th June. For more information on the exhibition and new Philosophers book, as well as an invite, head here.

Philosophers show - May 20- June 18, Flowers Gallery, New York

Hi there, I hope some of you can make it to the opening reception for the Philosophers show next week in New York. The show will be on display at Flowers Gallery from May 20th - June 18th.

The newly published Philosophers book will be available as well as a signed limited edition of both the 1993 book along with the new one!

best to you

Steve

There is more information on the image below!

Steve Pyke Philosophers book coming out on Oxford University Press late this year (2010)

Philosophers 1989-1996 © Steve Pyke

Here is a little background information on the series from Steve,

(Philosophers can be viewed online here )

The History: I was commissioned to photograph a portrait of Sir A.J.Ayer in London October 1988. He was very poorly but the ten minutes I was promised stretched to three hours, we got talking and by the end of our conversation he suggested I should make studies of other philosophers. From this sprung a series of 100 of the western worlds leading philosophers, including Noam Chomsky, Iris Murdoch and Jurgen Habermas.

A J Ayer, London, 5 October 1988 © Steve Pyke

Iris Murdoch, Oxford, 13 November 1990 © Steve Pyke

Jurgen Habermas, Frankfurt, 6 November 1991 © Steve Pyke

As I photographed each philosopher I would ask them who they felt was central or had influence on their own work. As the list grew, whenever the names cross-referenced I would write to them and try to arrange a sitting.

I prefer to photograph sitters at home, I don’t often however work with props or even show location, they seem sometimes to be a distraction in the portrait. Whilst with them I also asked if they could give me some idea in a few sentences what philosophy meant to them. I always use my old twin lens Rolleiflex, a camera I began my photographic work with thirty years ago.

It took nearly three years to photograph this generation of philosophers and culminated in a number of exhibitions. Many of the portraits are now in both private and public collections, such as the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Noam Chomsky, Boston, 29 May 1990 © Steve Pyke

This work was funded on my own faith, the sale of my apartment and a strong commitment from my gallery. It was originally published by Cornerhouse Publications (ISBN 0-948797-76-2) this edition quickly sold out and was republished by my gallery Zelda Cheatle Press. The resulting book Philosophers (ISBN 0 951837 18 4) is now very much sought after and is similarly in collections and universities worldwide.

Inevitably with a project of this scale there were philosophers that I wanted to include but was not able to at the time. Now 20 years on I have completed a second stage of this odyssey photographing the contemporary generation of thinkers. This amounts so far to another hundred portraits

One of the wonderful aspects of my journey through the faces of philosophy has been the correspondence, the erudite hand written letter and now the e-mails defining philosophy.

SP NYC March 2010

PHILOSOPHERS WILL BE PUBLISHED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LATE 2010 MORE INFORMATION WILL BE POSTED WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE OR TO EXPRESS YOUR INTEREST IN UPDATES FOR THIS BOOK PLEASE EMAIL stevepykestudios@gmail.com