I'm interested in how moments later live independent of their original meaning. I'm interested in language, and how we make assumptions when we don't understand. I'm interested in failed communication, especially within families.
These Images are from frames of three 8-mm loop films in a 1975 series from the National Association of the Deaf. The films are on cartridges designed for a special viewing device. I looked, then shot through the viewfinder, then made images from those frames.
The cartridges and viewer belonged to my father; he studied them when learning American Sign Language. I looked to feel what it was like to be my father looking. (This is what my father paid attention to. This is what he was looking at.)
The narratives being signed – once very important to this man, this woman and this girl – are now without context, broken up. So these are stories from a forgotten family about what happened in the distant past, fragments of which may be glimpsed in the present but that no one can understand.
These Images are from frames of three 8-mm loop films in a 1975 series from the National Association of the Deaf. The films are on cartridges designed for a special viewing device. I looked, then shot through the viewfinder, then made images from those frames.
The cartridges and viewer belonged to my father; he studied them when learning American Sign Language. I looked to feel what it was like to be my father looking. (This is what my father paid attention to. This is what he was looking at.)
The narratives being signed – once very important to this man, this woman and this girl – are now without context, broken up. So these are stories from a forgotten family about what happened in the distant past, fragments of which may be glimpsed in the present but that no one can understand.