Albert MoserIn 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’s meticulous notes on what appears in the images, the camera gear he used, and usually a custom ink stamp reading: “Albert Moser, Photographer, 58 Beechwood Ave., Trenton, NJ.” Moser 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, 2025 Text written as part of “Rethinking Biography,” an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Americanhttps://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/25388/full19282022https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/people/2758/rdf