This is the time, and this is the record of the time

photobook project, 2023 — present

This project started off as an offshoot of the COVID remote portraits: a love letter to the musicians whose music kept me sane during those days. Since then, the project’s goals have shifted from verité approach of the quarantine portraits, into realm of play and imagination, where portraits aim to convey what that artist’s music feels like (and even provoke curiosity about the artist to the uninitiated).

The new series uses the same medium of remote photography (in other words, the photographer and the subject will not nece sharing the same physical space, but collaborating via the internet), and the resulting photos are subjected to various levels of manipulations — from 21st century technology glitches to 19th century photo techniques such as tintype. AI trained on stolen art will not be used.

The images next to this text are experiments exploring this direction. An aspirational list of participants:

a winged victory for the sullen actress aging aidan moffat alexander tucker alva noto ana roxanne andrea belfi andy stott anna butterss anohni arca arooj aftab arto lindsay autechre the avalanches avalon emerson beatrice dillon bitchin bajas black midi blood orange blut aus nord the body boris brian eno burial carl stone carmen villain cate le bon caterina barbieri charlotte gainsbourg chris & cosey chihei hatakeyama christopher willits chromatics comet is coming cooly g croatian amor cristian vogel cs + kreme david lynch david sylvian debby friday deena abdelwahed demdike stare dennis bovell djrum dry cleaning duval timothy eartheater einstürzende neubauten elysia crampton epic45 fennesz fever ray floating points flying lotus forest swords four tet frederik valentin gang gang dance gazelle twin georgia anne muldrow gigi masin gooooose graham sutton grand river gwenno holly herndon htrk huerco s. ian william craig ichiko aoba iggy pop ikonika imperial triumphant inga copeland jabu james ferraro jaubi jenny hval jessy lanza john cale jon hassell jpegmafia juana molina julia holter julia reidy julianna barwick kali malone kali malone kamasi washington kara-lis coverdale kassa overall kassem mosse kate nv katie gately kee avil keiyaa kelela kelly lee owens kim deal kim gordon king krule klein kmru kode9 kristín hersh kyle kidd la monte young & marian zazeela laurel halo laurie anderson lee gamble leyland kirby liturgy liv.e lonnie holley loraine james low lucrecia dalt lucy liyou lyra pramuk mabe fratti malibu mark fell maryam saleh matmos maurice louca max loderbauer maylee todd mdou moctar mhysa mica levi mira calix moodymann my bloody valentine the necks neil young neneh cherry nick cave nicolas jaar nozomu matsumoto oliver coates oneohtrix point never oren ambarchi oval pan american patten perfume genius pet shop boys piano magic pink siifu pole pontiac streator rabit rafael anton irisarri rian treanor richard dawson robert hood robert wyatt robyn róisín murphy rosalía rose elinor dougall ryuichi sakamoto saba alizadeh saint etienne scratcha dva senyawa sega bodega sevdaliza shabaka hutchings shygirl siavash amini slauson malone slowdive the soft pink truth spellling spring heel jack squid stephen o’malley sudan archives sun’s signature supersilent surgeon suzanne ciani swans szun waves tara clerkin trio these new puritans thundercat tim burgess tim hecker tindersticks tirzah tuxedomoon tzusing underworld vanishing twin vladislav delay vril william basinski wolfgang voigt the young gods yves tumor zora jones