Jeffrey Wolin: Passing Time
For more than 25 years, Jeffrey Wolin has combined photographic portraiture with handwritten text, exploring issues relating to memory and identity. An exhibition of his work titled ‘Pigeon Hill: Then & Now’ explores passing of time.
Beginning in 1985, Wolin turned the camera on himself, writing personal stories directly on photographs that related to his life. Soon after, he began photographing residents of Pigeon Hill, a low-income area in his hometown, Bloomington, Indiana. In 2010, when reading an article in the local paper about a murder, Wolin realised he had photographed the victim on the Hill decades prior – it was then that he decided to find the people he had met in Pigeon Hill, and continue their stories.
‘Pigeon Hill: Then & Now’ features a selection of people Wolin worked with from 1987-91. Through Internet searches, word of mouth and visits to the housing complex, Wolin found dozens of people who posed for him when they were young. Now adults, Wolin showed them the original photograph, reflecting on that day and the changes in their life. These memories are written directly on the photograph, and are presented as a diptych alongside a recent portrait Wolin made, with accompanying text.
‘Pigeon Hill: Then & Now’ poses questions about how we understand a person’s past through present day portraiture; how the passing of time allows us to look back on our past with greater clarity and honesty; and the resilience and vulnerability expressed when people are confronted by the lens of a camera.
Wolin creates collaborative works that say as much about the people depicted as the society in which they live. Through their words, we reflect on our own lives, and the decisions made along the way.
‘Pigeon Hill: Then & Now’ is on display at Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, US until Saturday 1 March 2014.
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