CHRISTMAS future
I watched Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” again last night. I think the familiarity of the story along with the endless tongue-in-cheek remakes and knock-offs have taken the edge of the concept. But what if? What if your life was absent of you? The work of Greg Sand, today’s Artist of the Day, reminds me of the reality of that concept. Every vintage portrait over which I have longed in consignment and thrift stores has met their end. Sobering. Another thoughtful display of empathy– empathy for those connected to these unknown souls. (continues below)
“The series Once Removed consists of antique portraits in which the subject is missing. In all of the images, only the photographer’s backdrop and chair–next to which the sitter once stood–remain. The photographs are now about the absence of the subject rather than about the subject itself. Hopefully the viewer ponders the removal of the person and concludes, given the obvious age of the portraits, that the subject is dead.
‘By giving me the absolute past of the pose…
the photograph tells me death in the future… I shudder…
over a catastrophe which has already occurred.’
“These words from Roland Barthes’s ‘Camera Lucida” describe how I feel when I view a photograph as old as the ones used in this series. I feel a connection to the person, followed by a dread of what is to come, followed by a sense of grief at what has already transpired. The removal of the subject–who is very much alive in the photograph–forces the photograph to more truthfully depict the present reality in which the subject is no longer alive.” — Greg Sand