proximity and distance

  Artist's statement The internet is a great forum for bringing people together. It is also, by nature of how we use it, a great isolator -- creating an ersatz society where we can enjoy each other’s company from the privacy and solitude of our own homes. It provides proximity from a distance and allows us to filter our personas through its fun house mirror, presenting to the world only the images we have chosen. On Facebook, there’s no more manicured presentation of our best face forward than our “profile picture.” For “ Proximity and distance ”, I placed my iPhone right up against my computer screen, resting it in the hinge of my laptop. I scrolled each 50 x 50 pixel profile picture into position and snapped the photo, the mechanics of the act restating the very theme of this series. I then brought these blurry photos into Photoshop and further decreased their resolution by making each one a mere 13 pixels across. At this point, I  enlarged them as much as I could (3200%, up...

  Sometimes (plugged-in person that I am) I lay my iPhone down in the hinge of my laptop. Sometimes, picture takin' fool that I am, the phone is still in photo mode. Once, just once, the scene behind it looked kinda cool and I moved my camera phone (move over Dick Tracy) around the screen until it settled on the tiny 50 pixel by 50 pixel profile pics that accompanied people's Facebook updates. The faces looked amazing. Spectral. Abstract. Special. I shot one and then more and then, in no time at all, a hundred of them. They were so beautiful. (I only shot profile pics where there was one or more actual face.) So . . . here they are in all their colorful, muted, gauzy glory. I might shoot every one of my fb friends. Or maybe this is it. Maybe it's done. An accidental concept, quickly executed and completed. A fast and whole art project. Thoughts? (click on any picture to see it bigger.)