The Woods Archive (1972 - 1991)
One-hundred and twenty-six 35mm photographs from my mom's collection of over 10,000 family photos
Dimensions of each photograph variable
All photos by Tad or Gay Myers 1972 - 1991
Assembled in 2012
Commissioned and published for:
University of Southern California
Cinematic Arts Department
Spectator Film Journal
Fall 2012 Issue
Read essay here
About the work: The Woods Archive (1972 - 1991) is a collection of 126 photographs, taken on 35mm film, between the years 1972 - 1991. These photographs are archived in photo albums, along with almost 10,000 other family photographs, at my mom's house in Virginia. She has been creating these family albums since 1970, and I find them to be one of the greatest domestic masterpieces I have ever seen. Commissioned by my friend and fellow filmmaker Jim Boyda to write a piece on "loss and the digital decay" for Spectator Film Journal, I began to muse on how this archive of 10,000 photographs has no digital back-up and exists only as a physical artifact. The idea came to me to pull out every photograph between the years 1972 - 1991 that my dad had either taken of us in the woods or that featured my dad with us in the woods and digitally scan it so as to have a record of this sub-collection. Our father had just passed away, and musing on these was my ability to keep him close. When we were in the woods we were always home. Essay on the work is here.