Keith Carter | A Certain Alchemy

A Certain Alchemy
Photographs by Keith Carter, introduction by Bill Wittliff, afterword by Pat Carter. University Of Texas Press, Austin, 2008. 184 pp., 102 illustrations., 12x12". 

Keith Carter was a knock out workshop instructor at the 2016 Filter Photo Festival, bringing a deep sense of creative vision to our community. We can’t thank him enough for his time and expertise. Keith recommended A Certain Alchemy as a great example of his work and practice. Purchase your copy today.

Lauded as 'a transcendent realist' and 'a poet of the ordinary,' Keith Carter is an internationally acclaimed photographer whose work has been shown in over one hundred solo exhibitions in thirteen countries. At first finding his subjects in the familiar, yet exotic, places and people of his native East Texas, Carter has since expanded his range not only geographically, but also into realms of dreams and imagination, where objects of the mundane world open glimpses into ineffable realities.

In A Certain Alchemy, his tenth book, Keith Carter explores relationships that are timeless, enigmatic, and mythological. Drawing from the animal world, popular culture, folklore, and religion, Carter presents photographs that attempt to reflect hidden meanings in the real world. Accompanying the images is an introduction by Carter's friend and fellow photographer Bill Wittliff, who describes Carter's artistic journey and the epiphanies he has experienced. Patricia Carter, Keith's wife and muse, also offers her insights into the wellsprings of his work.

In Keith Carter's own words, 'A Certain Alchemy is a collection of imperfect observations of the relationship we have to our ideas of place, time, memory, desire, and regret. It is an anthology of oblique angles and awkward pauses that examines the history of photography and our own shared natural histories.'