Screen Time

As the world changes in response to COVID-19, human connection is sought and strengthened almost exclusively through web-based conferencing. In Screen Time, this unprecedented moment in history is documented by merging the tools of today with those of the past, to create lumen print portraits via zoom calls. Participants across the world sit painstakingly still for 15 minutes while their likeness is captured by exposing live video feed from a tablet screen directly onto a sheet of silver gelatin photo paper. The tablet that connects artist and subject acts as both a conduit and a negative, exposing photographic paper in real time to produce a unique record of this shared experience. This process is an exercise in trust – the artist must trust their materials and subject's stillness, while the subject must trust that their patience and effort will not be in vain. This work challenges us to embrace the unknown and succumb to those in between moments of uncertainty where our reality is called to question and there is little we can do to influence it. These exposures will not record the world with absolute sharpness or detail, but rather with soft suggestive hues emblematic of the time spent together. Ghostly forms wait, their likeness and sentiment preserved.