║ Kent Klich ║

© Kent Klich, Untitled, from the series Picture Imperfect

© Kent Klich, Untitled, from the series Picture Imperfect

© Kent Klich, Untitled, from the series Picture Imperfect

“In family albums we often see parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wifes, aspiring to look their best in the photographs. They will often respond to the camera by posing together, forcing glazed smiles while affirming the family bond. Looking at the lens for approval they may inuit that someone – perhaps even themselves- will return the gaze decades later, searching the image for its hidden meanings.
Framed in ways they cannot completely control, vulnerable and mute, they may be concerned tha one day they will be judged. Will they appear succesful? Handsome?
Beautiful? With enough dignity, money and status? Will their lives be thought worthwhile?
Might they appear once to have been desirable? Cute? Loved?

In Beth`s case, the façade was barely sustained. Perfection, even of the official, superficial photographic kind, vanished all too quickly. Now Beth`s all-too-public family album, circumscribed by the limitations of well-intentioned social service agencies, eroded at its core by the malignancy of her family`s cancerous emotions, was rapidly gutted, its pages sadly renouncing even the intimations of Paradiso while parading various forms of hell.”

Excerpt from Beyond the Rectangles, by Fred Ritchin

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