In this installation, artist Dan Solomon appropriates and blurs images from historical source materials to explore the nature of photography and memory. Bystanders extracted from the background of Abraham Zapruder's home movie of the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, serve as silent and innocent witnesses to the violent events that unfolded before them that day.

These portraits are juxtaposed with a detail from the blurry Polaroid snapped by another witness, Mary Ann Moorman, at the exact moment the President was struck. Isolated from their original contexts, the shadowy figures become metaphors for the limits of memory. Contemplating their ethereal forms invites many thoughts: how memories are shaped by pictures, how eyewitnesses respond and adjust to events, how unreliable the camera can be as a record of reality, and how the meaning of representations changes with time.

Special Thanks

This installation is made possible in part by support from Studley.