The exhibition will feature many previously unseen works along with some of Mortensen’s most well known iconic occult themed photographs, which Huffington Post declared as “Some of the most beautifully terrifying images ever made”.

Born in 1897 in Park City, Utah, William Mortensen was a self taught photographic artist who along with the actress Fay Wray made his way to Hollywood in 1921. There he worked with such notable directors as Cecil B Demille, Tod Browning, John Griffith Wray and Ferdinand P. Earle as still photographer, and costume and mask maker. He was given a whole floor at the Western Costume Company to work in and used the resources the perpetuate his own art. His fascination with occult subject matter began when he saw the film “Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages”, a 1922 Swedish-Danish documentary-style silent horror film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen.

“Everything exists through its opposite. For pictures of calm and tranquil beauty to have any meaning, even for “sweet” pictures to have any meaning, it is necessary that the grotesque and the distorted exist. Perfection of form is significant only because the malformed exist also. Those who turn away from the grotesque are losing the richness and completeness of artistic experience.”

For further information and visuals please contact Stephen Romano at Stephen Romano Gallery romanostephen@gmail.com or 646 709 4725