From the home of Belva and Deborah Mcormick
Rosewood
Columbia
South Carolina
USA
October 2015
Watermarks
This series is derived from an archive of more than 1,000 water-damaged family photographs encountered on my journeys through flooded communities. Some are anonymous, found abandoned or floating in the aftermath; some are closely tied to the people I have photographed. The marks that overlay the original images are happenstance: random impacts of water, mud and time on photographic emulsions.
I am fascinated by the action of water and chemicals–photographic elements themselves–on the surface of these personal items. I have enlarged some, amplifying them as artworks, their painterly textures evoking the sense of something personal and emotional being surrendered to the rising water. Alongside the enlargements I have also presented Tideline, a series of site-specific installations of the original found photographic objects, salvaged and distorted testimonies to particular family lives before their encounter with the floods.
The collecting and curating of these evocative objects can be seen as a form of contemporary archaeology: the flood-initiated process of decay revealing something significant. These are powerful artefacts, speaking to the potential loss of communal memory to climate change.
From the home of Mary and Chuck Highhouse
Hill Rd
Black Creek
Middleburg
Florida
USA
September 2017
Passport photo, found floating in floodwater Jawahar Nagar
Srinagar
India
October 2014
Passport photo, found floating in floodwater Jawahar Nagar
Srinagar
India
October 2014
Passport photo, found floating in floodwater
Jawahar Nagar
Srinagar
India
October 2014
From the home of Greg and Lois Hochhauser
Rancho Bauer Drive
Memorial
Houston
Texas
September 2017
From the home of Carl Steen
Rosewood Drive
Columbia
South Carolina
USA
October 2015
From the home of Gloria and Terrence Mckeen
Black Creek
Middleburg
Florida
USA
September 2017
From the home of Shirley Armitage
Moorland Village
Somerset
UK
February 2014
From the home of Gloria and Terrence Mckeen
Black Creek
Middleburg
Florida
USA
September 2017
From the home of archaeologist Carl Steen
Rosewood
Columbia
South Carolina
USA
October 2015
From the home of Comrade Abdul Rashid
Bemina
Srinagar
Kashmir
India
October 2014
From the home of Gloria and Terrence Mckeen
Black Creek
Middleburg
Florida
USA
September 2017
From the home of Eileen Anton
Bluebird Lane
Memorial
Houston
USA
September 2017
From the home of Eileen Anton
Bluebird Lane
Memorial
Houston
USA
September 2017
From the home of Eileen Anton
Bluebird Lane
Memorial
Houston
USA
September 2017
From the home of Eileen Anton
Bluebird Lane
Memorial
Houston
USA
September 2017
From the home of Eileen Anton
Bluebird Lane
Memorial
Houston
USA
September 2017
From the home of Torrey Mosvold
Rancho Bauer Drive
Memorial
Houston
Texas
September 2017
Found amidst wreckage.
Tacloban
The Philippines,
November 2013
Found on Glenhaven Drive
Rosewood
Columbia
South Carolina
USA
October 2015
From the home of Gisela Pietsch-Marx
Burgstrasse
Stolberg
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany
August 2021
From the home of Gisela Pietsch-Marx
Burgstrasse
Stolberg
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany
August 2021
From the home of Gisela Pietsch-Marx
Burgstrasse
Stolberg
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany
August 2021
From the home of Gisela Pietsch-Marx
Burgstrasse
Stolberg
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany
August 2021
From the home of Gisela Pietsch-Marx
Burgstrasse
Stolberg
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany
August 2021
From the home of Gisela Pietsch-Marx
Burgstrasse
Stolberg
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany
August 2021
From the home of Eduard Brunner
Deggendorf
Bavaria
Germany
June 2013
From the home of Gloria and Terrence Mckeen
Black Creek
Middleburg
Florida
USA
September 2017
From the home of Comrade Abdul Rashid
Bemina
Srinagar
Kashmir
India
October 2014
