19.75 x 9.25 archival pigment print
Edition 1/10, 2/10, and 3/10 available
$1,100 framed, $800 unframed
 
Please note: double click on the image to see full view. 
 
Artist Statement:
 
The photograph titled, S-Z is part of a larger body of work that documents the remainders of obsolete university slide libraries. This archival pigment print depicts the side view of a single filing cabinet drawer, containing hanging files that were used to organize and physically protect slides. The slides and their ephemera are now faded, damaged, or discoloured with age. The aging of this physical resource is a poignant reminder of philosopher Roland Barthes’ melancholy musing on the analogue photograph, in which he points out that the photograph, like a human being, has a limited life: “Like a living organism, it is born on the level of the sprouting silver grain, it flourishes a moment, then ages…Attacked by light, by humidity, it fades, weakens, vanishes; there is nothing left to do but throw it away.”[1]
 
[1] Roland Barthes. Camera Lucida. p.93.
 
Biography:
 
Susan Dobson is a Guelph-based artist working with photography, video, and installation. While she often takes the built environment as her subject, she has a personal interest in the ontological, technological, and material qualities of photography. For the past few years she has photographed obsolete university slide collections, including ones that she used both as a student and as an educator. Some examples of her exhibition history include: the Image Centre (Toronto), the Swiss Museum of Photography (Vevey, Switzerland), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the George Eastman Museum (Rochester, NY) and the Espacio de las Artes (Tenerife, Spain). She is Professor in the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph, and she is represented by Michael Gibson.