Ted Degener Visionary Detours

Beginning with a cross country road trip to see Watts Towers in Los Angeles while in college, Ted Degener has been documenting artists in their workspaces and art environments for decades. Relying on early books focused on “folk” and “Outsider” art, and through word of mouth, Degener obsessively plotted travels across America (and elsewhere) to visit and document as many living self-taught artists and makers as possible, a pursuit he is still actively involved with. Degener’s images are taken on the fly with a simple photo-kit, and the resulting photographs are as raw and powerful as the artists and spaces he has captured on film.

Ted Degener first began sharing his photos with the public in 1990 at The Houston Center for Photography’s exhibition, “Reinventing the World: Issues on Folk Art Environments”, and has contributed photos to books such as “Self Made Worlds” and “Souls Grown Deep”. Degener is a contributing editor and staff photographer for Raw Vision Magazine, a quarterly journal on art brut and Outsider art, to which he regularly provides images of the artists and the environments he has visited.

Click on any Photo below to expand the image for more detail. Whenever possible, the Artists’ Names and Locations have been linked to websites and videos with additional information about the artists.