Punctum, 2005 - 2006

For one year, I collected photographs rescued from the trash of one-hour photo stores. The collected prints are sorted by content stacked into categories based on content. The categories such as "portraits", "landscapes", "leisure", etc. are borrowed from stock photography sites. Using a custom-made jig and a hole saw, a 35mm diameter circle is removed from the center of each photograph in order to have a support pole anchor the stack. This organizational structure is self-defeating--by categorizing the photograph, its content is effectively destroyed. A play on Roland Barthes' term, "punctum" refers both to the physical puncture of the print, and also the censure of the main subject, allowing the viewer to notice the other "touching details". Each photograph is a unique c-print, approximately 4" x 6".