PHOTOGRAPHS
Barrow, Thomas F.
U.S. (1938 - )
f/t/s Cancellations (brown) / Homage to Paula
1974, printed 1975
Gelatin silver print
9 1/4 x 13 1/2 in. (23.5 x 34.3 cm) image size; 11 x 13 7/8 in. (27.9 x 35.2 cm) sheet size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.213

An underlying idea in Thomas Barrow’s work is that subjective selection is central to photography. Contrary to the sense of photography as an objective, mechanical reproduction of the world, Barrow reveals the role of the photographer in selecting what to photograph and, just as importantly, what to exclude. For this photograph, part of Barrow’s Cancellations series, he scratched the negative prior to printing, “cancelling” the photograph and thus exposing the process of selection and exclusion. Like Gary Hallman, another artist in this show who purposefully scratched his negatives, Barrow points to the materiality of the photograph, treating it as an object, undermining the illusion that it is simply a picture. -- Label copy for Material and Document: Experiments in Photography during the 1970s, November 4, 2011, to February 4, 2012.