- Membership Level:
- Exhibiting
- Member Category:
- Artist
- Arts Media:
- Photography
About William Graebner
William Graebner is a photographer, historian, film reviewer (www.2filmcritics.com), and writer (currently engaged with an extensive series titled "How to Take a Walk" at www.buffalorising.com, using some 30,000 photographs taken of the city and region since 2019. As an artist, he photographs "accidental" or "found art"--art produced by serendipity: graffiti on top of graffiti, drips and spills, the action of rust on metal, a pitted wall, torn posters. This art form, at least in its initial form, has the advantage of not being the work of a thoughtful, individual mind (with its limitations), but of multiple authors (or nature) who are not engaged in collaboration and do not intend to create a work of "art." Most of his photos were taken in Rome, London, Buffalo, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. He has had two solo exhibitions: at Betty's Restaurant/Gallery, Buffalo, in 2019; and a virtual show, sponsored by Temple University Rome, in 2020.
Education
B.A. Stanford University, M.A. and Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Publications
Author and/or editor of eleven books, including Coming of Age in Buffalo: Youth and Authority in the Postwar Era (heavily illustrated with photographs) and Patty's Got a Gun: Patricia Hearst in 1970s America.