Six Photographs of People I Don’t Know

EVO Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 2007 – January 2008
Six Photographs of People I Don’t Know is a multi-media project based on old photographs I have found and collected. This project is an exploration of the secret narrative that is held inside each of these discarded images. The people in the photographs are completely unknown to me; their names, personalities, secrets, loves, and passions have been essentially lost. However, the photographic image cannot help but suggest narratives about the people depicted. A dress or hat attracts our attention and remind us of someone we know. A facial expression leads us to surmise the individual’s character or mood. This is the ultimate paradox of these photographs: although we can create a thousand stories from each image, we are always aware that these histories are fictive and the individuals in each image remain completely anonymous.

Each of the six images in this collection has inspired an individual project that explores the longing to know these people and the frustration of their lost identities. As I weave fictive narratives around these images, I draw upon whatever medium best portrays this new story. In this way six autonomous experiences (a video installation, a sculpture with an interactive sound element, a performance object, a fabric sculpture, a video object etc.) come together to discern the ways in which photographs embody and obscure the stories of their subjects.