wendy given

With my new project, Gæst, I am immersed in an unconventional strategy for producing photography. I am meticulously culling and reinterpreting anonymous 19th century photographs that closely relate to my ongoing practice of constructing contemporary archetypal and visually haunting imagery.

Gæst means a stranger, visitor or guest. Gæst can also suggest a "ghost"—paralleling the context of this body of work—an illusory image formed in a telescope, camera, or other optical device, a suggestion or semblance… a revenant.

Examples of phenomena that are particularly interesting to work with are the literal ghosts I am discovering on the backsides of the found photographs. As a result of being stacked away upon each other for untold years in albums, drawers and boxes over time, the photos have transferred from their fronts to the backs of others, ghosting the images and portraits of the originals from the unstable chemicals, photo papers and boards.