This series of enlarged Polaroids (39x33) features a recurring cast of characters and animals moving through familiar neighborhood scenes.  They are caught in dreamlike, gravity-defying moments—falling, rising, or floating, on their way to somewhere else.  Orientation to gravity is questionable.  Some are whimsical, others disquieting.                     Off-kilter juxtapositions suggest a hint of peril.  

 

 I embraced the shortcomings of the Polaroid print and turned them into aesthetic positives for these theatrical tableaus.  The soft focus and muddy colors provide an atmospheric backdrop to the frontal action.  By enlarging the originals, the quiet intimacy of the pocket size Polaroid expands into something loud and unruly.  This radical scale deviation changes everything.  Printed on a polyester weave, vinyl substrate, the works are mounted inches off the wall, unframed, like hanging textiles.  They move and bend. They are not only images, but objects occupying space.  

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 The series consists of more than 28 prints.  Eleven are shared here as an entry point.  

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 So far in 2026 my collage photography is featured in four exhibitions - Untitled 20 , at Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis; 

Light on Cut Paper, at New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans;  Making Strange, at Praxis Photo Arts Center, Minneapolis;

and  A Celebration of Contemporary Photography, at PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 James Byrne