Monuments

This photographic portfolio of public monuments was shot on 4x5 black and white film salvaged from the fire on May 30, 2020, in Central Camera Company, Chicago, Illinois. Central Camera was set on fire by looters who used protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd and others as a distraction to systemically rob several stores along Wabash Avenue, or Jeweler’s Row, in Chicago’s Loop.

The fire damaged the film before it was exposed in the camera. It shows the effects of reticulation, the result on film when it is superheated and then cools. Black and white film has a minimum of 5 separate layers. Being made of different materials, when heated, each layer will expand at a different rate from the others and, when cooled, will also contract at a different rate from the others.

Essentially, the film pulls itself apart.

A nationwide effort has begun investigating the forgotten or ignored history behind many of our country’s monuments. This effort accelerated as a direct result of the unrest following the murder of George Floyd, although a number of the monuments had been called into question beforehand. Enmeshed in the questions we face are considerations as to what the monuments should be. Are their meanings meant to be preserved and only remembered as to when they were erected? Or if a monument takes on a new purpose, should it be removed or destroyed? Or should it remain and adopt a new understanding to reflect the current era?

The resulting photographs from the damaged film appear distorted and are reduced to black-and-white extremes with very little gray in the middle. Black-and-white is an easy enough metaphor to understand, especially if we think back to Charlottesville, Virginia, and the unrest caused by the removal of statues that glorified the Confederacy. Black-and-white continues as a metaphor for the Civil War era. Abraham Lincoln recognized there was little ground in the middle when he observed: “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. And black-and-white is a great metaphor for today when approximately no one wants to listen beyond her/his/their own echo chamber.

The distorted nature of these reticulated photographs encourages us to give a fresh look to our monuments and our history. And where do I think this leaves us? Probably right about here.