AfterImages

After Images (Excerpted from "Nudes, Truths and Stories," by Ricardo Barros After I had made and printed the color photographs in Fabricated Truths [see related project on this Lens Culture website,] I realized that I was revisiting those images in my mind’s eye at odd moments during the day. These nudes continued to assert their presence. I carried around the impression that they made as an afterimage. ‘Afterimage’ – that word resonated with me – so I returned to the original photographs with the specific intent of reinterpreting them to create a new work of art. In a very literal sense, I was extending the creative process beyond the point of completion. I wanted to travel beyond the terminal station. The new photograph would be an “after” image. I set about giving this notion a tangible form. While I was at it, I thought I’d steal the nude, too. Thus were born the AfterImages, a series of Black and White photographs included in this show. There are no nudes in any of these photographs, only black or white holes where the nudes used to be. Yet, especially for people who have seen the original color photograph, the nude figures are there as plain as day. The AfterImages are minimalist in concept and execution. With relatively “so little” to look at, they demand absolute integrity from the content, composition and rendering in each presentation. A second light bulb seems to go off, and it illuminates a smile.