37 minutes vol. 1
Spring 2017
This project is a book printed with 37 pages, including the front and back covers. Every photo in the book took exactly 37 minutes to capture, no more, no less. Unfortunately, the presentation of this project is a little awkward on web. Some of the text labels at the bottom of the images run together. The images with text to the lower left were left pages in the book and images with text to the lower right were right pages. The images that are split in two (the first example being the set of 37 images at the bus stop) were full two-page spreads in the book with their labels on the previous page.
Artist's Statement
I enjoy playing with the process of art. I imagine everyone who has gone to a modern art exhibit has scoffed and thought of creating their own random mess and calling it art (to which I say, go for it!).
When seeing the book for the first time, the viewer becomes intrigued by the mystery of the number. The relationship of each image with the number changes. One is a 37-minute exposure. Another is a set of 37 photos, each taken one minute apart. Some are taken at the end of 37 minutes doing, during, or after some action. Others are the best photo out of an activity conducted for 37 minutes. My two favorites are the row of glasses symbolizing the four and a half cups of milk that I could drink in 37 minutes and the compilation of all the squirrels I could photograph in 37 minutes. The photos in the book hold nothing constant—form, structure, nor technique—but the 37 minutes put into their creation.
In fact, this book is not about its content, but its process. The making of each image is explicit. For most art, the final product hides the exact amount of effort placed into it. Here however, there is no mystery of creation. Making each photo in 37 minutes may seem like an exercise, like etudes for a pianist, or a game, or a proof of concept--and it is indeed all of those things--but most of all it is an exploration of the process of photography.
Why 37? Why not 37?