Breath

Photographs of smokers on the internet • Archival inkjet prints mounted on aluminum • 15″ by 20″ editions of five • 22.5″ by 30″ editions of three • •

Statement

The photographs in the series Breath are taken off a computer’s screen showing video stills of men smoking. The men recorded themselves and posted the videos in an internet forum. I selected ten video stills — from clips recorded by different men at different times in different locations — and arranged them into a single slow, voluminous exhale. That way, Breath seeks to visually restore a sense of connectedness and community that existed, for a time, amongst members of that internet forum.

As for my previous series Candy or Bust, each image in Breath is filtered through two digital cameras. A smoker’s webcam captures the original, continuous stream of images with some amount of coarse pixelation and color distortion. After selecting a single frame and retouching it, I recapture that image with a high-resolution camera. Hence, the final image reproduces not only the likeness of the man exhaling smoke but also the pixel grid of the computer screen displaying that image.

This process of re-photographing is as crucial to Breath as it was to Candy or Bust. For one, the interplay of coarse and fine pixelation forms a pattern across all images that has a beauty of its own. That may just entice viewers to linger with the smokers and notice their own breathing, out, in, out, in, out, in. Yet that same interplay is not unfamiliar, also appearing in footage from video surveillance or remote-controlled weapons. It may just remind viewers of their own intrusion into what also are somewhat private, vaguely sexual moments — with the discomfort then pushing them away.

Because of the COVID pandemic, these simultaneously connective and intrusive qualities of digital video seem all too familiar to most of us by now. But Breath predates those events by several years. Notably, I started collecting the source material in 2012 and finished with selecting and retouching the images in late 2013. Due to technical difficulties while re-photographing the images, I put the project on hold until early 2019 — when I completed the series.

  1. A buff, naked, young man sits on a chair in a darkened room. He looks directly into the camera and is opening his mouth in preparation for exhaling smoke.
    Breath #1
  2. Another buff, naked, young man sits in front of a pile of dirty clothes and large picture windows with moulded frames and blinds drawn. He looks directly into the camera with his mouth wide open, about to blow out smoke.
    Breath #2
  3. A muscular, naked man sits on the floor. Behind him stands a white, plastic deck chair covered with a large white towel in front of an old-fashioned commode and mirror. He is exhaling small amounts of smoke, which are drifting upward.
    Breath #3
  4. A middle-aged man — with a thicket of black hair on his chest and a full beard that is black around the mouth but then turns white — sits in front of corner where a yellow and exposed-brick wall meet. The only window’s black blinds are drawn. He is slowly blowing out a ring of smoke.
    Breath #4
  5. A fat, naked, young man lies on his stomach and looks directly at the camera, taking up the entire frame. He is exhaling smoke, which is drifting downward and covering his mouth and chin.
    Breath #5
  6. A middle-aged man with a grey horseshoe moustache and a black and white sweater sits in a darkened room. He is staring off into space to the side of the camera while blowing smoke, which is drifting upward and obscuring a third of his face.
    Breath #6
  7. A scruffy young man wearing a ”party animal” t-shirt in a darkened room is slowly blowing smoke onto table, where it builds up.
    Breath #7
  8. A bare-chested, bearded man with tattoos on arms and shoulders is looking straight at us with both eyes wide open, while exhaling a large volume of smoke that covers his entire chest.
    Breath #8
  9. A naked man wearing a bulldog leather harness is leaning forward towards the camera, staring intently past the camera, and baring his teeth in a forced grin. There are traces of smoke in front of him all across the frame.
    Breath #9
  10. A naked, young man with a light goatee, a piercing through the bridge of his nose, and a wool beanie on his head is looking at the camera with puppy-dog eyes. His mouth is closed.
    Breath #10

b Scroll for more a