14 november 2011

The haptic lexicon of anonymous traces

"A daguerreotype slips inside its frame and becomes blemished or scratched. Anxiety over the destruction of a near perfect beauty. Sense of profound loss or mourning as if personally related to the subject in the daguerreotype. The image is a shard, fragment of metallic mirror in which I see my own distressed expression and the fading vapour of the occupant as an exiting phantom image. There are tramlines traversing the sensitive surface of the daguerreotype and I yearn to have it in its original perfect state."

The Endless Instant > Gallery of disfigured daguerreotypes