Chasing the Image - MFA Exhibition of Timothy Laurin

During the Christmas break of 2015, I returned to the physical photograph.  I was examining some of the photos in this collection when I noticed one image in particular.   This small print represents two women standing on a train platform, however, a lens flare, obscures one of the figure’s faces.    I was struck by the way this visual erasure of the image resembled a “sanding away” of the image.    It was at this moment that I questioned to myself, “what if I was to physically sand away the emulsion?”    Taking a piece of 1500 grit Emery paper I began sanding other photographs from this collection.    Immediately I was engaged – engaged in the sanding gesture but also excited at how the image was being transformed.    By interacting with the information contained in the photograph I realized that I was rewriting the narrative of the image, a narrative that had been held in  suspension for many years.   Unknown Pa...

I began my Graduate Studies research during the fall of 2015 at York University in the Visual Arts program.  My body of work during this time has been focused on a family photographic archive that I inherited from an aging aunt as she was preparing to move to a care facility.  This collection consists of over 3000 images comprised of black and white negatives, photographic paper-based prints and transparency slides dating from the mid 1940's to the late 1970's. As I started viewing this group of images, I was struck by the fact that although these images are part of my family heritage, the people and events are unknown to me.  The more time I spent with this collection, the more I needed to understand the role that photography plays in our lives. I am a product of the Kodak era of the snapshot. Growing up in the 1960’s in North America, I was able to experience life twice - once first hand and secondly via the family photo album.   The ubi...

I decided to craft my exhibition around three series of works: sanded photographic contact prints, large format serigraphs on mylar, and an artist book with viewing desk. Because all works in this exhibition (and my research for the past few years) have their beginnings from the family photo archive that I have inherited, I felt it was important to have some of the original prints in the exhibition both as finished works and as context for the other works. The Sanded Photographs: Moored, Sanded Photographic Print, 2015 Silver Fog, Sanded Photographic Print, 2016 The Serigraphs: Anonymous Fisherman, Serigraph on Mylar, 2015 The Artist Book: Repoussé - artist book of trading cards Repoussé, viewers rearranging the order and narrative