Slide Library consists of a suite of photographs of obsolete university slide collections. Some of the photographs include evidence of my working process, such as the reflection of electronic flash equipment, or the rebate and processing clip marks on my large format film, in order to draw attention to my role in the cycle of material reproduction (a photographer taking pictures of slide reproductions of photographs).
The physical objects in these defunct slide libraries could be regarded as memorials to analogue photography and to the life cycle of material objects generally. Most of the slides and related paper paraphernalia are damaged, fading, or yellowed with age, a reminder of philosopher Roland Barthes’ musing on the 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.” (Barthes. Camera Lucida. p.93)
Artist talk at the Ryerson Image Centre, Nov 4, 2021
With a heap of thousands of discarded slides, artist Susan Dobson questions the value of analog in a digital age, by
Kate Taylor for the Globe and Mail, Oct 7, 2021
Susan Dobson: Slide|Lecture, CONTACT Photography Festival Catalogue, May 2021
The Things We Keep, by Alison Nordström, 2018
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Michael Gibson Gallery, London, Ontario, Canada, 2018
Remainders, C-print from digital file, 2018
40″ x 54″ (101.6 cm x 137.2 cm)
Photographers A – Z, C-print from digital file, 2018
40″ x 65.5″ (101.6 cm x 166.6 cm)
Karl Blossfeldt, C-print from digital file, 2018
12″ x 12″ (30.5 cm x 30.5 cm)
Photography Until Now, C-print from digital file, 2018
69″ x 25″ (175.25 cm x 63.5 cm)
Photography After Photography, C-print from digital file, 2018
19″ x 24″ (48.3 cm x 61.5 cm)
Eastman, George. Unknown Photographer with a No.2 Kodak. Bathing, c. 1888, 2018
C-print from digital file: 40″ x 50″ (101.6 cm x 127 cm)
Pigment Print on Acetate: 8″ x 10″ (20.3 cm x 25.4 cm)
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SUSAN DOBSON 