photo album

  • Roles: concept development, design, photography, image transfers

Photo Album is a metamorphosis of a mundane day, in printed form.

Inspired by Eduardo Paolozzi's cast bronze sculptures in Metamorphosis of Rubbish and work from the New Brutalists, the piece utilized an "as found" object—a photo album that was empty upon purchase at a thrift shop. The "hunting ground" for "as found" items was a morning commute by foot. These collected items were captured with a photo lens, stored as memories.

Like the process of lost-wax casting, the original photos were destroyed in translation. The photos were split into three color channels (cyan, magenta, yellow) and were individually registered by hand and transferred via solvent onto paper. This process often yielded fuzzy representations of what the photo once depicted, and sometimes the original subject matter became completely unrecognizable from what it once was.

What does the photo album become? Like Metamorphosis of Rubbish, maybe its contents are interpreted as alien artifacts, or technicolor snapshots from another planet. Perhaps the viewer's own consciousness and feelings are impressed upon them; an adopted recollection of memories past. Or maybe it simply existed as a catalyst for current anxieties and emotions.

The final images were then scanned and presented in a magazine for distribution.