Charles Thomas Close was an American photographer, painter and visual artist
He made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others, which hang in collections internationally. Close also created photo portraits using a very large format camera. He adapted his painting style and working methods in 1988, after being paralyzed by an occlusion of the anterior spinal artery.
“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightening to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.”
Chuck (Charles Thomas) Close died on 19 August 2021. RIP Chuck.