Everything, As Perfect As It Seems

Published in 2020 in collaboration with AINT-BAD. Essays by Randy Williams and Lizzie Stein.

 

The repetitive and immediate nature of the instant photograph is a ritual, to save a memory, a period of life, just a habitual moment logged into the Dewey decimal system of the collective unconscious.

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I began to see these instants as fragments of tangible memory, a portrait of what has, will, and always form us. But often looking back on a Polaroid, that moment was just the surface. There were feelings, expressions and images that needed to be revealed or reflected upon with additional commentary. Consequently, the process led to excavating the exteriors of time, covering a vulnerability/moment needing to be forgotten or amending memory with footnotes.

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The works in this book span the last decade, largely dealing with an autobiographical excavation of the self, with interest in duality and fragmental storytelling through visual representation. Set in a state of flux, each work presents a teetering of truths and lies, light versus dark, and all passages between life, death and rebirth. The cumulative narrative comes to represent a portrait of what shapes us, while embodying the deluge of all that was forgotten or surplus to existence.

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Edition Size 300
7″ x 9″, 96 pages,
Hard Cover, Perfect Bound

Purchase here: https://www.aint-bad.com/product/books/christopher-e-manning-everything-as-perfect-as-it-seems/