Record (In Memoriam) (2005)

medium: digital file
print dimensions: 13" H x 51" W @ 300 dpi / 173 MB

... this digital photo-work, which comprises a horizontal scan of my entire 12" vinyl record collection, has been created as a unique page work to be printed as a 5-page sequence (beginning on a right face) with bleeds. It was made using a flatbed scanner as my "camera".

Record (In Memoriam) is one of many projects I am undertaking that explore using the ritual minutae of contemporary subcultures to undertake a pop codification of mortality. The quiet power of this elegiac work derives from the use of the ordinary to seduce the viewer into looking at the inevitability that waits beyond life, love & entertainment. Using the ideas of vanitas & remembrance as a starting point, this photograph archives my vinyl record collection in a way that is meant to evoke life's transience (mirrored in the transience of this largely dead format). The limitations of these original objects as containers for sound are subtly emphasized through the automatic silence of the still image.

Collections are inherently personal archives of taste, a kind of individual accumulation that, though extracted from mass culture, makes up a kind of time-worn portrait of its collector. Taste is the ultimate residue of any collection.

 


Prefix Photo: v12, 2005

Self-destroying Postcard Worlds: The Synthetic Landscapes of Isabelle Hayeur by Jan Allen

Life in Venice: Physical Sensations at the 51st Venice Biennale
Featuring contributions by Michelle Jacques, Natalie De Vito, Roberto Pinto, Scott McLeod

The Incidental Landscape: Photographs from Eric Klemm's B.C. Project and Other Recent Works by Gary Michael Dault

Portfolios by:
Olafur Eliasson / Carlos Garaicoa / Geert Goiris / Isabelle Hayeur / Eric Klemm / Mark Laliberte / Arnaud Maggs / Annette Messager / Hans Schabus / Greg Staats

2006 Still-life Photography, Gold