About The Artist
Paul Gerskowitch developed Refractism through an unexpected late-life encounter between photography, accumulated experience and generative computational tools.
Dr Paul Gerskowitch is a self-taught artist whose earlier professional life was spent in medical research, clinical pharmacology and pharmaceutical research and development. He came to image-making without formal artistic training and initially approached photography as a personal curiosity rather than the beginning of a new practice.
That changed when he began exploring whether a photograph could be transformed to express more than the visual instant recorded by the camera. Repeated experimentation with generative computational tools produced images that could be striking, but also revealed a recurring problem: the further interpretation proceeded, the more easily the identity of the original place or subject could be lost.
That problem became the foundation of Refractism. Rather than allowing transformation to proceed without constraint, Gerskowitch developed a disciplined method in which a real photograph becomes the Anchor and remains the visual control throughout the process. The objective is to preserve the recognisable identity of the originating reality while allowing accumulated experience, memory, present response, atmosphere and artistic judgement to influence its interpretation.
His scientific background has influenced the way the practice has developed: through observation, repeated experiment, comparison, rejection of attractive failures, refinement of rules and continuing revision when the evidence does not support an assumption. But Refractism is not a scientific exercise. Method provides discipline; the final decisions remain aesthetic and personal.
The computational system contributes visual possibilities. Gerskowitch determines the intention, establishes what must remain fixed, assesses what may change, rejects departures that undermine the Anchor, selects the works worth retaining and decides how they are classified and presented.
The resulting body of work ranges from interpretations that remain close to photographic reality to more visibly transformed Refractist works. Landscapes, architecture, flowers, figures, water and the contemporary city are treated not as separate genres but as different subjects through which the same underlying enquiry can be pursued.
A developing practice
Refractism remains a developing practice rather than a declared movement or finished theory. Its principles have emerged through making images, discovering where the method fails, and revising the discipline accordingly. The Working Paper and Operating Manual record the current state of that development and are intended to remain open to criticism and further refinement.
The computational system contributes visual possibilities. Gerskowitch determines the intention, establishes what must remain fixed, assesses what may change, rejects departures that undermine the Anchor, selects the works worth retaining and decides how they are classified and presented.
The resulting body of work ranges from interpretations that remain close to photographic reality to more visibly transformed Refractist works. Landscapes, architecture, flowers, figures, water and the contemporary city are treated not as separate genres but as different subjects through which the same underlying enquiry can be pursued.
Dr Paul Gerskowitch, at 81, is a recent self‑taught artist whose work explores the border between memory, emotion, and photographic reality.
He works primarily through Refractism*, an artistic method that transforms everyday scenes into atmospheric emotional spaces while preserving the underlying truth of the original image. His practise emerged late in life after a fulfilling career embracing medical research and pharmaceutical R&D leadership.
With no formal artistic training, he approaches image‑making with a scientist’s eye and a poet’s instinct, building a body of work that centres on light, recollection, and reinterpretation.
On Seeing – Read the Essay
AI and Art – Read the Essay
*The artist’s style is termed Refractism. The method he developed is termed Refractist.
