Such a strange phenomenon: I'll try my hardest to block out a too-much-information (TMI) conversation happening in shared public space, like a talking-too-loud person on a subway or elevator. But, then I'll find myself sneakily side-glancing, rapt with attention at those details that are meant to be somewhat private, like straining to see what book someone's reading, or what they're texting in the seat next to me.
Porn and Haagen Dazs? by Kelly Shimoda
Thank photographer Kelly Shimoda, who can finally save me from myself (at least in this regard). A Spring 2007 Hot Shot, Shimoda is showing one of our favorite bodies of her work that addresses exactly this quixotic contradiction of modern life at Carrie Haddad Photographs in Hudson, New York.
From the press release:
Kelly Shimoda's photographic series, I guess you don't want to talk to me anymore, is a documentation of mobile phone text messages by and to people she has encountered - both those familiar to her and strangers. The 8 x 10 inch images provide the viewer an intimate look at this form of communication that is fleeting by design and rarely seen by anyone other than the original author or intended recipient.
For many, texting has become a way to avoid the most uncomfortable parts of face-to-face interaction or even talking on the telephone. They often feel liberated to spontaneously communicate intimate and revealing thoughts, but by being forced to encapsulate those thoughts in a mere 160 characters, the best messages read like haiku poems - brief, but full of meaning.
In the end, these enigmatic photographs ask as many questions as they answer, and force the viewer/reader to reflect and draw upon his or her own experience to make sense of them, ultimately pointing to the fundamentally fragile nature of human communication.
Lunar Eclipse by Kelly Shimoda
Architect in office across hall clearly does not remember... by Kelly Shimoda
When Kelly participated in our Summer Reading show last August, we likened the experience of these images to the infamous site Texts From Last Night. While there are some shared similarities of late night booty-calls, random non-sequiturs, and the odd confession, these "text portraits" have the effect of elevating the mundane by creating an object from it. In the process, they also draw our attention to a particular kind of nuanced ephemerality, rich with intended and unintended emotional layers. A pick-me-up care message from mom, a grocery trip update, a quick meditation on the intangibles of the sex act—the effect of visiting each of these received communiqués is not just that you also received the information, dear viewer, but that you're now a part of this collective universal culled from the minutely particular, the ability to fuse the two is the inherent charm of Kelly's work.
Photographs by Kelly Shimoda
Carrie Haddad Photographs
On view: March 11 - April 18, 2010
318 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
Lastly, If you didn't snatch up Kelly's red-hot edition on 20x200 (only one print left!), she also has an image up for sale as part of the excellent Collect[dot]Give project, where photographers donate an edition and all the proceeds to a worthy charity of their choosing.
Before lunch: Flaccanicco, Italy by Kelly Shimoda
Kelly's edition for sale through the site will benefit Start Small. Think Big., Inc, which works to empower low-income working families in the South Bronx, New York to increase their economic opportunities and build sustainable financial independence.