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Twelve Reproductions (Totally Lost The Sting) February 2003 This photograph was among those made in preparation for my exam at the art academy, which in the end remained unshown. Though I consider the outcome of these photographic investigations legitimate, they were not meant—or even suitable—as illustrations for The Grand Absence. Rather, they were part of the writing process, questioning whether photography could ever purely be about photography, or that it always needed a clearly defined subject matter. That is why, I think, I downplayed the choice of subject a little bit, favouring unsophisticated, inconspicuous scenes. At the graduation, I was criticised by some for ‘not having anything to show’, but my own tutors defended me, saying that there were images, they were just not shown. At that point in time, I was not yet fully aware that the difference between a lack of images and their conscious invisibility was crucial, and would fuel my practice for years to come. |