Why photograph an object? The relevance of photographic production to contemporary culture involves questions of permanence and impermanence. Why do we try to define what is lasting and enduring, especially in a culture fascinated by newness?

 

A producer's / manufacturer's expiration date indicates the shelf-life of a product, the time remaining before an object or substance is no longer of use. What about photography? Photographs, appearing in newspapers and magazines, are part of mass culture; they are marked by their temporary state. When do photographs become dated or obsolete, losing their value?

Consumers prefer objects that look new and shiny, like those depicted in magazine photographs. Photography provides a mechanism for transforming the manufactured object into a precious commodity. New purchases may have a short lifespan; the throwaway, mass-produced object mirrors the fast pace of our lives. This constant turnover signals change, and underscores the transitory nature of life, of what we create and discard. Adam Licht's shelves present the perfect model. He reductively documents an object and its photographic shadow, its ghost. His constructions display a generic martini glass or apple veiled in gray, coupled with a photographically produced shadow image. Similarly, Anita Douthat's large photograms of furniture, namely tables and a wheelchair, function as shadow documents of objects from our environment.