Artist: Jeana Klein
Title: Main Square in Marigot
Attribution: Main Square in Marigot, 2023, Jeana Eve Klein
Year: 2023
Materials: Plastic beads and acrylic yarn
Dimensions: 36" x 50"
Image Statement: I am recreating my late grandparents’ travel photographs from the 1990s. The original pictures represent a different era of documentation, when photos were taken with the preciousness of film and shared through the intimacy of tangible albums. When I look at these pictures, I ponder what it was about that exact moment that my grandparents wanted to preserve and remember. I get a sense of their joy and awe at the world and all its wonders. By reinventing/ resurrecting these images, I am reflecting on the dramatic evolution of vernacular photography and the impact thereon of digital and social media. Rather than the preciousness and privacy represented in my grandparents’ photo albums, we now have an unlimited capacity for documentation which can be carefully curated and shared instantly with the masses. I am pixelizing the images through beads and making them larger than life for public display, essentially making physical versions of the typical social media sharing of today.