Monday, March 21, 2011

Adam Fuss- My Ghost

Adam Fuss- Daguerrotype- My Ghost
With the images from this series Fuss tries to capture or possess the very thing he has lost.  His imagemaking process directly relates to that because this type of imagemaking is generally not done anymore.  So he emphasizes the theme or idea of this series My Ghost by relating it to his lust or passion for antique photographic processes.

I believe this is where he got the idea for the photogram of the rabbits.  The same thing above applies here- he is directly relating his process to that of William Henry Fox Talbot.  And while doing that he is attempting to grasp the essence of a lost loved one.

Images like this in My Ghost are metaphorical- but very clear.  Smoke- formless and essentially impossible to capture.  This relates to the ideas he is bringing to the surface of My Ghost- the elusiveness of death.  The not only speak to the unique qualities and nature of the photogram, but they also speak about his passion for photography because some of this earliest exposures are of smoke and fire.
Adam Fuss- c print- not part of My Ghost
The movement and undulation of the snake is what he is exploring in this particular photogram.  As a child in Britain he played the game snakes and ladders- snakes being the chutes.