Recover, Revealed
2014-2015 collaboration
with Sean Black
With the explosive shift toward pixel capture and the resulting disappearance of film and paper emulsions, the age of the printed snapshot has been eclipsed. In search of the digital equivalent, artists and educators Sean Black and Erika Gentry now scour second-hand shops and the Internet for used memory cards in search for a new vernacular image—all too fleeting now that photographs can be easily deleted.
From the processes of acquisition, file recovery and curation these artists dive into today’s image culture in search of everyday photographs of the era, which have nearly been overlooked. Photographs taken during the brief transition between tangible print photography and the networked systems of the cloud and social media are often stored on the countless memory cards one finds littering eBay and thrift stores in varying degrees of obsolescence.
Understanding that each card is a museum of lost, forgotten, or deliberately destroyed images, Black and Gentry use a controversial technology to retrieve the images—sometimes reconstructing them pixel by pixel to reveal a fractured, decontextualized moment. Equal parts accidental voyeurs and digital detectives, Black and Gentry gather erased images of lives they will never know and present them to the viewer in a collection that navigates ethical questions of privacy and rights of representation that have followed photography from its naissance to today.
As educators of photographic history, Black and Gentry chart the shifting codes and methodologies of the personal snapshot. As this paradigm rapidly evolves from resin-coated papers to electronic screens, the artists explore the interstices of the private and the public. The project raises issues of privacy and surveillance, asking the viewer/photographer to consider the terms and conditions of storing and transmitting digital images. Even image corruption—the breakdown of the data undergirding the image—becomes visually compelling.
Furthermore, Recovered, Revealed attempts to connect the conditions of looking—in the past and today. Cherished as a precious keepsake, the tactile and unique gelatin silver image is set aside in a box or frame while its digital descendent waits on a hard drive, waiting to be seen again.
Uknown
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November 17, 2006 4:17pm
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November 17, 2006 4:17pm
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February 27, 2004 5:34pm / Nikon E995
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May 25, 2002 11:49pm / Nikon E995
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Nikon E995
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October 24, 2014 6:56pm / Canon EOS Digital Rebel
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August 5, 2011 7:18am / Nikon Coolpix S3000
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January 21, 2012 1:05pm & 1:08pm / Nikon Coolpix S3000
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December 28, 2014 6:19pm/Canon EOS Digital Rebel
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March 20, 2015 10:51pm / Canon Digital Rebel
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February 26, 2012 5:32pm / Canon EOS Rebel
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July 17, 2014 12:59-1:00pm / Canon EOS Digital Rebel
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November 21, 2008 4:18pm / Canon PowerShot S230
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March 30, 2012 1:32pm / Nikon Coolpix L22
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January 1, 2009 1:06am / Nikon Coolpix L20
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January 20, 2011 8:42am / Nikon E880
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February 20, 2011 6:36am / Nikon E880
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May 11, 2005 12:05pm / Nikon E995
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April 3, 2015 10:14pm / Canon EOS 5D
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January 25, 2014 4:25pm / Canon EOS Rebel
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January 25, 2014 3:40pm / Canon EOS Rebel
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January 25, 2014 4:28pm / Canon EOS Rebel
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July 3, 2008 2:15am / Sony DSC-W55
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September 18, 2011 4:43am / Canon PowerShot SD780
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September 18, 2010 1:35pm / Sony DSLR A350
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October 24, 2007 12:57pm / Canon PowerShot S500
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March 14, 2015 2:52pm / Canon EOS Rebel T3
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Nikon E995
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October 23, 2007 10:05am / Canon PowerShot S500
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January 25, 2015 7:09pm / Nikon D800
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January 20, 2011 1:01pm / Nikon E880
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June 6, 2009 3:48pm / Canon PowerShot S230
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Nikon E995
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September 14, 2013 10:31am / Canon EOS Digital Rebel
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November 17, 2006 / 3:16pm Nikon D100
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January 1, 2009 8:24pm / Nikon Coolpix L20
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September 1, 2008 6:50am / Canon PowerShot S230
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Nikon E995
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Nikon E995
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Olympus u30D
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Nikon E800
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