Attendant

The moment every photograph is created, a process of alienation between present and past begins immediately. What is fixed as an image is already slipping away from lived experience, becoming a trace rather than a continuation of time. Photography, in this sense, is never neutral: it produces distance even as it promises preservation.

In my work “Attendant,” time becomes measurable, accumulative, and materially present. Along the lines of the material’s anatomy, time is treated as a tangible object rather than an abstract condition. Photomechanical and photochemical processes are deliberately exposed and foregrounded within the series. Scratches, emulsions, residues, and repetitions are not concealed but allowed to speak, continually referring back to themselves. In doing so, the works write their own biography, one that unfolds through use, degradation, and transformation rather than representation alone.

Time is an inextricable component of the photographic medium, embedded not only in the moment of exposure but in every stage of its making, handling, and viewing. I am particularly drawn to the fragile balance between spontaneity and decay, and between careful deliberation and the promise of permanence that photography claims. This tension reveals the medium’s vulnerability and its resilience at once.

By approaching photography as a plastic and corporeal substance, “Attendant” invites the viewer to move “behind the material.” This shift encourages a repositioning from image consumer to image producer, allowing the medium itself to be examined, questioned, and re-evaluated within its current cultural and technological condition.

Karsten Kronas is part of »Guest Room: Charmaine Toh & Philippe Pirotte«