Bill Travis

Bill Travis (born 1957) is an American photographer known for his cityscapes and the sensual male figure.

His discovery of photography came through art history—he earned a Ph.D. in medieval art and taught at the university level for several years—and this background has influenced his creative work. From 1995 to 2002, his photography of medieval sculpture and architecture appeared in print in prestigious journals, ranging from "Arte medievale" (Italy) to "Artibus et Historiae" (Poland), "Gazette des Beaux-Arts" (France), "Konsthistorisk Tidskrift" (Sweden), and "Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte" (Germany).

Beginning in 2003, he expanded his subject matter to the male nude and took to experimenting with photographic transfers on gilt boards, using a technique of his invention that let the gold shine through to the surface. The result is something close in spirit to the Byzantine icon. More recently, Travis has developed other techniques that explore the frontier between painting and photography, such as transfers on glass and tinfoil. The cities he has photographed most extensively are New York, Paris, Rome, and Venice. He has also executed a series on Venticello, a little-known miniature village built on a slope in the Hollywood Hills.

A Manhattan-based photographer, Travis has shown his work internationally and has had three museum exhibitions, in Rafaela (Argentina), Berlin, and Castelgandolfo (near Rome). He was interviewed for Italian television on RomaUno in June 2005. His works belong to several public and private collections around the world. Portfolios in print media include "Gab" (2008) and "Mein schwules Auge 3" (2006). Brian Paul Clamp, author of an essay in Travis’s recent monograph, "Along the Appian Way" (2007), writes of an “otherworld [in this body of work] where the real and the imaginary intersect.” Writing in the exhibition catalogue to the show in Castelgandolfo, Stefano Abbadessa Mercanti finds in his art “an unusual character that recalls the great works of the past, while also addressing contemporary issues.” Images can be seen on his website, [http://www.billtravisphoto.com www.billtravisphoto.com]

General references

"The Intimate Portrait/Ritratto Intimo: Bill Travis, Chiara Abbaticchio, " exh. cat., Grottaferrata (Italy), 2005. (two-person show)

Rinaldo Hopf and Axel Shock, "Mein schwules Auge 3, " Tübingen (Germany), 2006. (portfolio)

Bill Travis, "Along the Appian Way, " with an essay by Brian Paul Clamp, Grottaferrata (Italy), 2007. (monograph with 51 full-color illustrations)

Krystyna Lemanowicz, "Z miloscia ku swiatlu" Pila (Poland), 2007. (sample photographs, including bookcover)

“Romantik verspricht mehr: Unter Wasser mit Bill Travis,” "Gab Magazin, " February 2008, pp. 24-25. (portfolio)

External links

* [http://www.billtravisphoto.com Bill Travis's official website]
* [http://www.incubuschoice.com/closeup_1793_en_bill_travis.html Interview with Bill Travis, Incubus' Choice, October 2007]
* [http://www.artemedievale.it Arte medievale official website]
* [http://www.artibusethistoriae.org/?menu=art&gdzie=artibusIssue&id=45 Artibus et Historiae, issue 45]
* [ http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713395157 Konsthistorisk Tidskrift official website]
* [http://pages.unibas.ch/zsfkg Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte official website]