Ethan Murphy Front & Back

In Front & Back, Murphy explores the relationship between photography and loss. While searching in the basement of his childhood home for objects belonging to his father, the artist found deteriorating 4×6″ colour prints that were wet and adhered together in layers. While most of the images were destroyed, abstract fragments revealed glimpses of a deceased loved one. In his photographs and video, Murphy washes and detaches the prints in an act of recovery that transforms the decaying family pictures into precious objects.