"i have seen
a curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
of inland ground, applying to his ear
the convolutions of a smooth lipped shell;
to which, in silence hushed, his every soul
listened intensely; and his countenance soon
brightened with joy; for from within were heard
murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed
mysterious union with its native sea."

w. wordsworth, from "the prelude"
image: cdv, circa 1880

when sleeping beauties multiply in norwich...

an early theatrical montage of actors from the play, the sleeping beauty, by h. goss and w.j. gaze, presented in norwich england circa 1900. the photograph has a beautiful silver sheen to the borders, suggesting the chemical process is still not totally stable. the interesting thing about the image is that it is as if every scene of the play is being performed simultaneously - like a footrace, everything starting at the same moment, with the shorter scenes slowly stopping first, and the few actors in the longest scene remaining animated until the end. there is something uncanny about seeing the same people in various positions on the same stage at the same time, as if they have multiplied, to build an acting troupe of a variety of themselves. the image disrupts a theatrical notion of time, destroying a traditional trajectory of narrative. within a single glance, one can glean every facet of the entire story; and there is something strange and wonderful to see both the beginning and end at the same time - as well as all that has happened in between. once one begins to scan the entire surface of the photograph, with little knowledge of the intended storyline, there is a kind of permission given, to move from image to image in an intuitive way, to feel the potential of building a variety of new narratives, like cutting this picture into pieces, and pulling them out of a hat, creating a number of entirely new stories from the same parts in different combinations, ordered by chance.

one example, spiraling out from the center:

the devil asks the beauty for her heart, and she curiously instead shows him her dress, a man warns her, and she finds herself embracing yet another man, a woman in black tells her of some foreboding, and a woman in white welcomes her with some secret to tell, a field of women all tell the beauty different sides to the same story, until the beauty gives her heart to the nearest kneeling man, he fights with three men in hats who try to steal her away from him, until she is taken by two men with large staffs, hearing about her difficulties people are sad, while she hides herself dressed as a man, the king and queen are beside themselves until the beauty is lost in a series of couplings, when finally she meets again the first man, who this time begs her to be with him, while above them, the three large floating heads of the gods with lonely eyes, who have brought this whole story to life, think quietly amongst themselves...

a collection of faces...

a strangely surreal photo montage, dated 1913. i believe this large photograph is a constructed mythical meeting of various important people in the history of the salvation army. it looks like a very old william booth, the founder of the salvation army, with a white beard and book, in the bottom detail photo.

the montage becomes an archive of faces, forming a history, and in essence also an archive of voices. like a collection of butterflies in a box, captured at different times and different places; these faces are similarly held in place with pins, in close proximity to things they relate to, but never really touched in life. it is a scene that exists as a false memory, as it never existed in life, nor during any of the participants lifetimes. it revolves around fantasy, but on some level seeks to invent history.

the problem with this choir, is that without any outside knowledge or attached history, the voices remain mute; and one is left to create stories of this gathering, rather than able to speak of facts.

other than my relative certainty of the presence of booth, i have no idea who any of the people are. i have no idea why the presence of musical instruments exists only along the bottom edge; and i definitely have no idea what the crowd in the midst of a giant greek temple is supposed to symbolize...

it is certainly a nice pre-cursor to some early surrealist collages; and i should also mention that the dealer i bought it from, said he found it in the trash.