Tracy Longley-Cook

SEPTEMBER 1 – DECEMBER 4, 2021

Another Year Come 

I have nothing new to ask of you, 
Future, heaven of the poor. 
I am still wearing the same things. 

I am still begging the same question 
By the same light, 
Eating the same stone, 

And the hands of the clock still knock without entering. 

–W. S. Merwin 

• PRESS RELEASE

ARTIST STATEMENT

The evolution of the photographic medium and practices related to death and grieving has an interesting and linked history. As photography became popularized and accessible by the mid to late 19th century in Europe and America, the custom of post-mortem portraiture became a common observance for many families. Photographs offered a more convenient, inexpensive, and true-to-life depiction of the deceased than other media such as painting or sculpture. One of the most significant ways in which photography gained acceptance, popularity, and commercial value was through posthumous utilization. “Spirit photography” also emerged in the mid 19th century paralleling the societal interest in communicating with spirits through a medium. These fabricated images (through the use of multiple and long exposures) were convincing at the time as people did not have a general knowledge of how photographs were made and could be manipulated. 

Whether created with the intention to fool the viewer, or as a lasting artifact of remembrance, photographs of the dead were meant to provide comfort as well as a tangible and precious connection to the deceased. As the medium of photography had become less expensive and more accessible to the layman in the early 20th century, its role had shifted to documenting other important moments in life. Direct contact with death was minimized due to changing concerns within the medical field and laws regulating the handling, transporting, and burying the dead, thus altering social attitudes towards mortality. The process of grieving became an increasingly private act and divorced from public display. 

The photographic image, made in any time period, becomes a fitting medium to reflect on what once lived. The past is inherently suspended, stilled, and made silent in any photograph leaving the viewer to reflect on what once was. In the words of Harry Carroll, “photography takes the life out of living subjects and renders them into ‘corpses’.” These photographs serve as permanent relics that embody ritualistic acts related to personal loss. Inhabiting a visually austere environment, an isolated and anonymous figure participates in reserved and symbolic observances related to bereavement. These performed ceremonial acts were inspired by various traditional cultural and religious mourning practices along with personal reflections on loss, memory, and the passage of time. Contemporary society, particularly within western cultures, struggles with how to negotiate and process grief. Engaging this subject in a public setting asks the audience to reflect and react to personal and communal loss in an effort to find solace.