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Alchemy of the Unknowns
A film swap project with photographer Lisa Tang Liu

“Formless form, image of the unimaginable; call it certain uncertainty.”

 - Laozi, Dao De Jing

What would pictures look like when two strangers from Boston and Phoenix, separated by 2,700 miles, collaborate and double-expose the same film?

Isolated by the pandemic, in a polarized, less-than-united United States, many Americans turned to photography as an outlet, and Instagram for community. Some began to participate in an analog photography revival, perhaps clinging onto something tangible in the ever-encroaching virtual world. We are two such photographers collaborating in “film swaps," the practice of having one photographer first expose images on an entire roll of film and mail it to another, who would then expose the same film again.

 

Challenged with the uncertainties of using (sometimes expired) film and the discomfort of relinquishing control over the fate of our own images, we are learning to accept, and even embrace, chaos.

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