The Red Portraits

These prints are alcohol transfers made from Fujifilm's FP-100c instant film that I delayed peeling apart after exposure for up to a whole month. The chemical process, left unchecked, worked its magic distressing and eating away the images. You are looking at the ruins of photographs, intentionally done, so perhaps more like a Victorian folly than a classical ruin. This process draws attention to the surface of the photograph, that which is usually invisible. Neither mirror, nor window, these images push into the realm of faded memories, nostalgia and regret. They evoke and suggest rather than document and prove. And it is in their absence of information that their beauty lies. The surface artifacts, layers of color from the emulsion, act as both barriers and emotive signifiers. Their flame-like quality can suggest passion, hatred or lust, yet they also obscure information blocking our gaze and imparting a false modesty. The barrier works in time and space pushing these recent images into the distant past and reminding us of time's relentless march toward the inevitable. In that, these images truly are memento mori.