Compositing realistic miniature dioramic scenes with images of life-size models is neither a simple nor quick process, but it is the bread and butter for Richard Tuschman's artist practice. The process of handmaking each of his incredibly detailed sets takes the artist several months, but the results justify the effort.Having perfected this process since the 80s, Tuschman is now gaining some much-deserved recognition through a solo exhibition at Brooklyn’s Klompching Gallery. Titled Once Upon a Time in Kazimierz, the show consists of the artist’s signature process used to portray the life of a fictitious Jewish family in 1930’s Kazimierz, a neighborhood of Kraków where Christian and Jewish people once lived in harmony, before Nazi expulsion.
Cinematic domestic scenes, contemplative characters, and a soothing color palette help evoke a sense of nostalgia, an element that certainly relates to the artist’s personal investment in the project as his ancestors lived near Kazimierz around the time period portrayed.“As a young boy, I was fascinated by my parents’ and grandparents’ photo albums, wondering about the texture of daily life way back when, while at the same time feeling a strong bond with the people pictured,” Tuschman tells The Creators Project. The artist’s wife is perhaps an even more important link to the project, as she grew up in Kraków and much of her extended family still resides there.Tuschman, whose practice extends over 30 years, is a rare example of an early adopter of Photoshop in a generation often marked by traditionalism and a refusal to adapt digital technology. “I immediately fell in love with [Photoshop’s] creative possibilities… Photoshop felt much more intuitive to me than the darkroom,” says the artist. But a large portion of his process still lies within an intricate physical process: “As much as I love what is possible in photography and Photoshop, I still love making things with my hands. Being something of an introvert, I grew accustomed to working by myself on a relatively small scale. Eventually all of this came together in the technique I use now.”
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