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A closer look

What remains when the subject is gone?

Desertion Photography looks at absence in photographs: the empty places, overlooked details and missing context that change how an image reads.

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Metal chair casting shadows on wooden floor beside a window in a dimly lit rustic room
The Empty Chair Is Not an Empty Photograph · Empty Frames
Dimly lit laundromat interior with washing machines, cart, coat hanging, and a silhouette shadow on tiled wall at night

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Five ways to look

  1. 01The Crop That Makes a Picture Look CertainLooking Again5 min read
  2. 02A Quiet Photo-Viewing Break on a CommuteImage Afterlives4 min read
The seat’s worn surface, its angle beside a window, or the broad floor left open around it?
The Empty Chair Is Not an Empty Photograph
Our point of view

Absence is part of the picture.

A photograph can show what is missing as clearly as what remains. Looking closely makes room for more than one reading.

  1. The Empty Chair Is Not an Empty Photograph
  2. Shadow or Reflection: Two Different Kinds of Trace
  3. Before the Caption: What a Photograph Cannot Tell You

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