Burkhard von Harder discovered a caveat of worn black and white negatives shot in the USSR during The Cold War (1946 - 1991) and then printed each cut negative strip into a single book which together comprise the 9 x 6 inch, 45 volume, softcover Blurb booklet series My Anonymous Cold War Archive.
Because photographers often shoot multiple frames of a single subject, the annonymous images in each of these booklet are most distinguishable from one and other by their unique signs of deterioration: the rips, scratches and tears each negative collected after being discarded and left decaying over the past decades.
Similarly, Burkhard von Harder’s books themselves are subject to constant subtle changes throughout time. Like many Blurb users, the artist uploads subtel altered replacements of each of these booklets to Blurb periodically, so that any volume purchased at any given moment may differ from those ordered earlier. In so doing, My Anonymous Cold War Archive links the established ephemeral nature of memory and analog photography with the digital archive, playfully challenging the commonly held assumption that the digital archive exists in suspended animation in perpetuity.
Liz Sales
Posted 1 year ago with 1 noteTags: Liz Sales My Anonymous Cold War Archive
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