People I Don’t Know
I continue to be fascinated with found photographs. For years I have collected photographs found on the ground. Recently I have been drawn to more formal portraits culled from dusty cardboard boxes in thrift stores or old suitcases at flea markets. There in an innate sadness connected to these photographs. Who are they? What were their stories? How did these photographs end up unloved, not with their families, discarded? I decided to give the people in these photographs a chance to be vital again, to be seen and considered part of our collective whole. In order to infuse life into the images, I asked someone of the same gender and approximately the same age to hold the photograph, leaving room for the viewer to connect the living to those who have passed on. Psychologically, we attach the face in the photograph to the body that holds it, creating a new relationship. I feel a quiet satisfaction that these people that I don’t know are again appreciated, held and recognized with dignity.