with artist Wallace Dibble
In my work, I usually take images found on Flickr, cutting and pasting them together through painting to form storylines. Through this process I have been able to take an intimate look at specific Flickr users and their friends’ lives. While many users use the platform as a one off dumping ground for their camera roll, a minority of them have been regularly updating their accounts for 15 years. It’s difficult to understand what drives some of these users’ commitment to sharing; the line between storage and expression appears blurred. Long term users tend to follow the same progression. They have a shitty handheld camera that they take to college parties, while some upgrade to DSLRs by the time they finish school. After a couple of years, the party turns into dinner and the remaining partygoers turn into houseguests. Slowly, the camera is brought to work conferences and hikes. Usually, around this time, the original college girlfriend or boyfriend of the user is dumped, in other cases they get married.
While my image archive has over 10,000 images, today I am going to share a few of my favorites.
Nov 26th, 2004
“Fat Chance”
The idea of the American College campus, specifically Greek life, has been a huge source of inspiration in my recent work. Since college is often seen as the time before adulthood fully sets in, many students try to make use of their limited time by roleplaying actions and images that they’ve seen in films and on TV. I’m particularly interested in the processes that sororities and fraternities use, whether hazing or the “big-little” system, to create a sense of brother or sisterhood. Although hazing has been fairly criticized for at times being overly cruel, I think there is something interesting in the primal want to prove oneself.
May 9th, 2008
The majority of kegstands last between 30 and 40 seconds. Typically three people are needed to help someone do a kegstand, two to support the legs and a third to hold a tap to the kegstander’s mouth.
November 9th, 2008
“Drunk”
There’s a huge genre of “the next morning” photos really popularized in the late 2000s early 2010s with the rise of films like Project X (2012) and Superbad (2007). Think guy duct taped to the wall or someone asleep with sharpie all over their face. I’m really interested in the competitiveness of one-uping the reenacted debauchery.
Dec, 24th, 2008
“I ended up cutting up a lot of snow flakes for school this year. These are a few of them”
I went to a christmas party last year where a bunch of drunk people sat in the corner making paper snowflakes. I love how intimate and quiet this photo is. Although you can’t see the person who made the snowflakes you can tell a lot about their demeanor.
April 9th, 2005
“Generic Party Picture 7”
I like that no one in this photo is aware of the camera.
August 31st, 2005
“Moga & Kate”
For several weeks in August Kate and Moga make brief appearances at parties in their friend Mike’s account. From what I can tell from the 35 photos of them together, they meet as partygoers and end up coupled. After August 2005, they completely stopped appearing in Mike’s photos. I have no idea where they ended up and if they are still together.
Jan 1st, 2008
“Ahh College”
Hosting requires a lot of ad hoc problem solving. The garbage bag punch bowl gets the job done.
Tumbnail image. Wallace Dibble, Rite of Spring, oil on mesh, 36” x 52”, 2024