Craig Russell | Me, I Think

×

Expand

Craig Russell, “Me, I Think,” 2024

(courtesy of the Gallery)

The exhibition Me, I Think is a series of nearly 100 “selfies,” taken outside the vernacular of social media–a deliberate misunderstanding of their function. The photographs are an intimate, personal documentation of a Brandon Heritage home that deliberately obscure their own contexts. They are a scavenger hunt of reflective surfaces, a record of discovery, of family, and of giddy play. Craig Russell is a writer, playwright, and retired city administrator who created a game for himself while he was stuck at home during the pandemic: to take one photo of his reflection every day for 100 days.

From the Artist Statement:

For most of human existence, ordinary people might occasionally see their own face in a bowl of water or on the surface of a still pond.

Only much later in history did the well-to-do have “looking glasses”, and only the very wealthy could afford to have their likeness painted.

And even then it was said of portraiture, that every portrait contains the artist.

~~~

When photography was new, it was touted as the medium of truth. Photographs would show us the world as it truly is, unfiltered and real.

But now selfie-culture shows only what the “self-taker” wants us to see

Them at their best. Smiling. Happy. Perfect.

Many photographs leave us feeling that everyone is having a better time than we are.

That others are better at life than we are.

~~~

As you view these photographs please feel how your eyes are drawn to what should be my face.

We simply can’t help ourselves.