Frekerick Sommer | American, 1905 - 1999
Frederick Sommer was the son of city planner and trained as an architect in Brazil. His drawings were first exhibited in Brazil during his teenage years and helped him gain admission to the architecture program at Cornell University, despite his lack of an undergraduate degree or knowledge of the English language. While in Switzerland in 1931, recovering from tuberculosis, Sommer purchased his first camera. He moved to Arizona in 1935 and devoted himself to photography after coming under the influence of Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston. His initial work bordered on the grotesque, often depicting animal carcasses. Sommer later moved on to produce landscapes and photographic assemblages.