In Regard to the Disgards

In the early nineteen eighties I had an opportunity to peruse, and collect, snapshots that people had thrown away. To the uninitiated let me say that the “snapshot aesthetic” is one of, perhaps primary, building blocks of modern Fine Art photography. For decades photographers have tried to emulate the simple elegance, and often unintentional-compositional-strength, of the humble snapshot. Eventually I had amassed a shoe box full of discarded pictures. At that point I decided to use them to make a series of photomontages that would remain true to their nature. In essence I simply took the snapshots and re-built them anew. I started by creating mockups that I assembled and re-photographed. The resulting print was sprayed and hand colored. Finally a clear coat was applied to give the surface continuity. As a homage to their origins I kept the size 3.5x5 inches to maintain standard snapshot proportions. The following are 6 of 15 pictures from the series. I offer no explanations or even titles. They are, as whence they came, simply reflections of a thought and moment in history.

dancingboy

hillbaby

TVs

babyscream

frowninggirl

sleepinggirl