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Anne Collier
Women with Cameras (Anonymous)
Essay by Hilton Als
Karma, New York, 2017
168 pages
10 × 10 inches
Edition of 1,500
A sequence of 80 images of found amateur photographs dating from the 1970s to the early 2000s that each depict a female subject holding a camera or taking a photograph. These artifacts of the pre-digital age were collected by Collier over a number of years from flea markets, thrift stores and online market places. Each of these photographs has, at some point in the recent past, been discarded by its original owner. The concept of “abandonment,” of photographic images and the personal histories that they represent, is central to Women with Cameras (Anonymous), which amplifies photography’s relationship with memory, melancholia and loss. This sequence follows the format of Collier’s 35mm slide projection work of the same name, which has been shown internationally.