{"person":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"2758"},"lastName":{"label":"Last Name","value":"Moser"},"endDate":{"label":"Death Date","value":"2022"},"displayName":{"label":"Name","value":"Albert Moser"},"objects":{"label":"Objects","value":[{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2021.18.8","objectID":"8068"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2021.18.7","objectID":"8067"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2021.18.9","objectID":"8069"},{"objectTitle":"A Panoramic View of the Atlantic Ocean...","objectNumber":"2020.3.1","objectID":"7475"}]},"geographyDied":{"label":"Died","value":["Trenton","Lexington","Trenton"]},"biography":{"label":"Biography","value":"In his panoramic composite photographs and geometric drawings, Albert Moser used repetitive artistic processes to create compositions that involved both form and chance. He collected pieces of paper, such as takeout menus and bus schedules, to use as surfaces for hundreds of abstract drawings, the intricate grids interrupted by shapes and patterns reminiscent of op art. He often made their rigid lines by using plastic lids and scraps of cardboard as stencils, rotating the paper as he worked, and let the piece evolve into a riot of intersecting colors. Similarly, he made his panoramic photography works by standing in one place and slowly rotating, taking up to thirty shots from a single position to encompass a 360-degree view. After he developed these images, he carefully lined them up and attached them together with adhesive or masking tape. His photographic collages most frequently capture city scenes, from skylines and neighborhoods to the beaches and boardwalks of New Jersey. They take in daily life in streets, malls, and parks. The backs of these works are filled with Moser\u2019s meticulous notes on what appears in the images, the camera gear he used, and usually a custom ink stamp reading: \u201cAlbert Moser, Photographer, 58 Beechwood Ave., Trenton, NJ.\u201dMoser was born in 1928 in Trenton to Russian Jewish immigrants. He served with the military as part of the American occupying forces in Japan following World War II, returning home in 1948. He later worked odd jobs, including at a department-store candy counter. Through the G.I. Bill, he took a photography course at the School of Industrial Arts in 1960. He went on to join the Trenton Camera Club and avidly explored different types of cameras, lenses, and filters. He started making the panoramic montages in the early 1970s, focusing on sites in Trenton and in Lexington, Kentucky, where his sister lived.Some of his earliest exhibitions were in Lexington, including a 2007 group show with Latitude, an art studio supporting people with disabilities, and a 2011 exhibition of his panoramic photographs at the University of Kentucky. He died in 2022.Allison C. Meier, 2025Text written as part of \u201cRethinking Biography,\u201d an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)."},"geographyActive":{"label":"Active","value":["Trenton","Lexington","Trenton"]},"geographyBorn":{"label":"Born","value":["Trenton","Lexington","Trenton"]},"beginDate":{"label":"Birth Date","value":"1928"},"firstName":{"label":"First Name","value":"Albert"},"textEntries":{"label":"Text Entries","value":"After finishing the ninth grade, Albert Moser joined the US Army and was sent to Japan for eighteen months as part of America\u2019s occupying force after World War II. In March 1948, he traveled back to the United States and worked a number of odd jobs, including a short stint at the candy counter of a department store in Trenton. In January 1960, Moser enrolled in a photography course at the School of Industrial Arts offered to veterans, and completed the course in nine months, this was the only formal training Moser ever received in photography. His diploma marked the beginning of a long career as a photographer. Moser seems to have identified himself, first and foremost, as a photographer, joining the Trenton Camera Club and investing in various cameras, lenses, filters, and other photographic gear.In the early 1970s, Moser began making panoramic, composite photographs of landscapes, cities, and other places that he liked to visit. Having chosen a particular view, Moser would slowly turn his camera, taking as many as thirty pictures from his position. He meticulously aligned and joined the photographs together using scotch or masking tape. Moser\u2019s panoramas are dominated by cityscapes and skylines but occasionally feature residential neighborhoods or beachfront scenes. People appear in the photographs only as part of the larger setting, and they are rarely mentioned in the detailed descriptions that Moser neatly composed on the back of every photograph. Most of his photos also bear a custom ink stamp that reads \u201cAlbert Moser, Photographer, 58 Beechwood Ave., Trenton, N.J.\u201d Moser lived with his parents until the age of 60 after which he lived in an assisted-living facility in Trenton."},"primaryMedia":{"value":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/25388/full"},"names":{"label":"Names","value":"Albert Moser"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"(1928\u20132022)"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"151595"}}]}