A Second Gaze: The Over It! Edition is a new online exhibition selected from submissions to Lenscratch’s previous annual Your Favorite Photo exhibition series. The photograph above is included. Your Favorite Photo is an annual open call for photographers to submit the favorite photo they took that year; mine originally appeared in the edition published January 1, 2021. We were in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were homebound, people — some of whom were otherwise healthy and relatively young — were becoming ill and ending up hospitalized or dead (including relatives of mine), and no vaccines were yet available.
This is a photograph of a small framed print, copyright 1916, which originally hung in my grandfather’s office, handed down from him to my father who hung it in his office, and from my father to my husband, who hung it in his. When the pandemic forced him to close his office and work from home, I put hung it on the wall above my desk, where I would often look at it and feel connected to my late father and the loving gesture of passing on these words to the next generation that it represents to me.
The curatorial statement explains the concept behind bringing these images together:
The photographs here presented are united by a shared heaviness and feelings that, at times, are better conveyed visually. The images, grouped by their moods and color palettes weave a visual narrative of profound longing — although for what is not always completely certain.
We hope you enjoy this selection, as much as we did re-discovering them.
Featuring: Cristina Coral, Luciano Freaza, Erika Nina Suárez, Matteo Capone, Carol Erb, Emmaline Carter, Evelina Sarupiciute, Terra Fondriest, Yevhen Vorozheikin, Mana Constantinescu, Emily Ann Guerra, Georgia Matsamaki, Stephen Snowder, Stephanie Schwiederek, Vincent Cervantez, Oliver Raschka, Joseph O. Holmes, Oli Bolzano, Kayla Nichelle Jones, Guillaume Tomasi, Helen Glazer, Michelle Robertson, Marisa Chafetz, Emmanuel Monzon, Peter Neill.