Bree Rosberg

Gladys

A series of old scanned family photographs featuring only the backs of the images.

“"Gladys" is a series of five images that aims to remove the aesthetic value from the photograph. By scanning the back of five old family photographs, I directly remove the aesthetic value of the photo by taking away what makes it aesthetic at all, the image itself. I do not take away from the conceptual value of the series by removing the visual image. The concept is born from the written content of the photographs selected. The back of each photograph includes a handwritten mention of a woman named Gladys; Gladys was my great-grandmother. I never met Gladys as she passed away long before I was born, but her connection to me runs deep. Ever since I was a young child, I was compared to Gladys by my mother and maternal grandmother who both told me that I walked, talked, and acted just as Gladys once did – even going as far as to say that I was the proof that reincarnation was real. I bake her recipes and wear her jewelry, yet I cannot recognize a picture of her. I never met her, so her physical appearance does not stick in my mind so much so that each time I am handed an old photo of her I must flip it over to confirm who it is. In this way, the words written on the back of the photographs are more of my great-grandmother to me than the front of the photographs will ever be. ”