Preparing for the "Becoming" exhibition this week, I came across two empty display cases in the hall (Thanks Kevin Haas) Letting my impulsive side take over, I decided to go through my archives of cards and catalogs from the last decade. After a bit of digging, I found a multitude of catalogs and cards from when I was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico. Included among the catalogs was "Photo Objects", an exhibition and catalog curated by Geoffrey Batchen at the UNM Art Museum.
Display cabinets with cards and catalogs referencing photo as object from UNM, 1999-2002. Includes a catalog by Geoffrey Batchen, for the exhibit, "Photo Objects", from the UNM Art Museum. Background, Gallery 3 and video projects outside Gallery 3.
Detail of the photo above, "The Photograph as object", with catalog by Geoffrey Batchen.Other cards and catalogs include Myra Greene, Kathleen Robbins, John Mann, Patrick Manning, Chris Colville, Ian van Coller, Professor Jim Stone, Professor and Adrienne Salinger.
The "Photograph As Object" is period of history and snap shot in time. It also refers to the dialogue and culture being produced at UNM during this period including specifically by Critical Theorist Geoffrey Batchen, and Photography Professors Thomas Barrow and Patrick Nagatani. The catalogs and cards function on two levels, with one being documents of photographers predominately focused on working with the photograph as a physical media, for example. On the other level, the catalogs and cards are actual objects, which, with the rise of the internet and social media, are a document of a diminishing form of media as objects in their own right.
Installation in process for the show, "Becoming", Gallery 3, Washington State University.
Unpacking and visualizing the installation of framed prints for "Becoming", in the physical space of the gallery, has been surprisingly satisfying. As much as I value the broad reach of the internet and social media as a way to disseminate photographs to broad audiences, there is still nothing quite like working with, and experiencing photographs as objects in physical space.
