JOHN KAYSER
Rose

August 27 to September 24, 2015 at Ampersand

John Kayser made photographs and films in California in the 1960s and 70s. His house and the streets of Los Angeles were stage for the private rituals that defined his obsession with female beauty. The women he captured on film performed at the heart of a photographic practice that remained out of sight while he was alive. 

Rose was his first. 

Kayser was born in 1922 in North Dakota but lived most of his life in California, first in Pasadena as a child and then in East Hollywood up to his death in 2007. He served briefly during WWII as an armorer in the 18th Bomber Squadron, a military position that corresponds to his life-long employment with Northrup Aircraft Incorporated in Los Angles, first in assembly and later as a technical illustrator. Rose marks the first exhibition of John Kayser photographs at Ampersand after acquiring his entire known output of drawings, photographs and films, a singular and secretive body of work he made over a span of 20+ years. Kayser’s work has been exhibited at Delmes & Zander in Berlin and Cologne, Galerie Christian Berst in New York and FARAGO in Los Angeles. His photographs are the subject of two books published by Ampersand Editions, Sitting and Rose.