Allegories are, in the realm of thoughts, what ruins are in the realm of things.

—Walter Benjamin, 1928

Photographs, often characterized as frozen moments in time, are in truth physical objects in perpetual transition, born of a medium that is itself thought to be disappearing. Created by light falling on photosensitive surfaces, photographs begin as passing instants that continue to evolve as they materialize as images. Even when fixed or printed, photographs remain susceptible to change due to internal flaws, artistic intervention, or environmental factors. As objects in flux from the moment of inception, photographs are like ruins, or fragments of time. Traces and remnants of the past, they are simultaneously stable and transient, present and absent.

This exhibition, a rumination on photography and ruin, presents works that themselves reflect on photography’s particular connection to the ephemeral, mutability, and decay. Featured artists include Lorna Bieber, Myra Greene, Rosalie Gwathmey, Yuichi Hibi, Denny Moers, Bruce Nauman, Philip Pocock, Alison Rossiter, Arthur Rothstein, Robert Smithson, Edmund Teske, Robin Waart, and Witho Worms.

FROM THE EXHIBITION

A distorted black and white photograph shows a dog playing in front of a vanity.
"Dressing Room" from the series Babies by Lorna Bieber, 1991. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. © Lorna Bieber.
A black and white photo appears to show a an over-exposed tree lined landscape
“Darko, expires May 1928, processed in 2011” from the series Lament by Alison Rossiter, 2011. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. © Alison Rossiter.
A black and white photo of a person's face, only showing their eyes, color distortions break up the photo making it appear to curl up and dissintegrate as it burns
Untitled ambrotype (no. 84) from the series Character Recognition by Myra Greene, 2007. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. © Myra Greene.

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