by Daniel Temkin
10. May 2010 20:01
This Friday I'll be in DC for the One Hour Photo show at American University Museum, which includes a photo of mine. I would share the image with you here, but the concept of the show forbids it. Any image included in the exhibition will be projected at the museum for exactly one hour, never again to be publicly shown.
This is the first show that includes work of mine that's straight photography, not databent, not prepared to look like a postcard, but simply a photo that looks like a photo.
NBC Washington on One Hour Photo
My statement for the show:
A rotting suitcase sits in the bushes. It's of unknown age, lying open, littered with piles of loose buttons and an odd assortment of clothing. The suitcase has a Mercedes sticker from an indeterminate era. If it weren't for the plastic soda bottle lying next to it, and a few other small clues, the image could easily be fifty years old.
Were these the belongings of a child? The buttons look like something a child would collect, and the clothing could be any size. Perhaps it belonged to a homeless person, or a vendor from a flea market who'd abandoned their wares.
The suitcase is beginning to decay, while the soda bottle is pristine. Although the suitcase will fade long before the soda bottle, this image reverses their circumstances. Once the one hour projection of this image completes, it will exist only in the memory of those who saw it. Specifics of the suitcase, as odd and mysterious as it is, may be remembered. The soda bottle, which has no story, will exist only in its generic form, interchangeable with any other.
