Photographic Series, Hand Erasure, 35x62cm, 2023
I raised my phone and took pictures of this man standing in the center of the frame, the one photographing the demonstration from a slightly elevated concrete block above the rest of the protesters. Do you see him? There in the middle of the photo, pointing his camera in our direction, tilting it towards the sky occasionally or to the building on his right. He was standing here taking pictures for over five hours. Was he really photographing our bodies? Capturing our faces on that camera? All this time? I had taken a close-up of him during another protest the day before. I tried to figure out which camera he was using. I undertook a strenuous online search and consulted with several professional photographer friends. Opinions differed. Some said it was a cassette camera, others believed it was the type that needs a card; was it a MiniDV or an SD card camera? Was he really taking all these pictures on a cassette camera? That would have barely gotten him an hour of footage. Was he erasing and recording again? If it’s a camera with a memory card, he can record for hours upon hours. I know an old Sony camera cannot take HD photographs. After a while, I became convinced he was an intelligence agent recording the protest. I don’t know to which agency he belonged, but he was obviously waiting for something to happen. It was often violence or the beginning of riots that he anticipated. I raised my phone and took photos of him until he noticed me. I panicked and hid my phone away.
Part of Serotonin, Benzine, and a Renegade Body, Solo Show, Marfa Gallery
