During a spring cleanout one year, you may have tossed your old high-school graduation snapshots. Or a passport photo. Or travel photos of places you could no longer identify.
Joachim Schmid has made off with them. And made art with them. His motto, first formulated in 1989, is "No new photographs until the old ones have been used up."
He reconstructs and restructures the ones he finds. Many times he leaves them alone: rips, tears, burns and all. It's impossible to see them without wondering about the subjects -- who are they? What happened on that day? What happened afterward? Who let this photo go?
There's an exhibition of his work for another couple of weeks at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY called Joachim Schmid Photoworks 1982–2007. After that, the show moves to London's The Photographers' Gallery through June 17th.
written on Monday Apr 16, 2007
photos,
debris,
art.
