Transylvania, Louisiana 1998 - 2002

Deborah Luster made this image/plate, Transylvania, Louisiana. It’s 12.7 x 10.2 cm. The sepia tone gives it a sense of something old, something discovered, something already disappearing. It reminds me of some of the work of Lisette Model with its grainy quality and focus on the human form. It's a picture of a tattoo on an arm, a kind of personal mark-making. I see the word ‘Emancipation’ scrawled beneath a faded image. A crude American flag stands prominent. It's hard to tell if the image is crudely made or whether the quality is lost due to the ageing process. This feels raw and immediate, like a documentary photograph, capturing a fleeting moment in time. Perhaps it is an act of memorial. It reminds us that art is a response to the world, an attempt to make sense of history and experience.