Lucas Samaras (b. Sept. 14, 1936); in Kastoria, Greece. He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met Allan Kaprow and George Segal. He participated in Kaprow's "Happenings," and posed for Segal's plaster sculptures. Claes Oldenburg, in whose Happenings he also participated, later referred to Samaras as one of the "New Jersey school," which also included Kaprow, Segal, George Brecht, Robert Whitman, Robert Watts, Geoffrey Hendricks and Roy Lichtenstein. Samaras previously worked in painting, sculpture, and performance art, before beginning work in photography. He subsequently constructed room environments that contained elements from his own personal history. His Auto-Interviews were a series of text works that were "self-investigator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Samaras) Born in Kastorias, Greece, in 1936, moved to the US when he was 12. (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/jul/19/lucas-samaras-auto-polaroids-camera-photos-self-portraits) Lucas Samaras was already known as a sculptor, painter, and performance artist when he began experimenting with photography. In his early work, which includes multi-media assemblages, he often included images of himself. The persistent use of himself as a subject has led one critic to remark that "Samaras's almost obsessional self-observation extends past narcissism toward a physical understanding of himself." In 1973 Samaras discovered that the wet dyes of Polaroid prints were highly malleable, allowing him to create what he calls "Photo-Transformations." He made these images in the modest New York apartment that also served as his studio. Describing himself as a "Peeping Tom," Samaras makes and remakes his own image to create a multi-faceted portrait of himself. These self-portrait photographs are distorted, terrifying, and often mutilated images. (http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/123489/lucas-samaras-photo-transformation-september-9-1976-american-september-9-1976/) undefined

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