CV122 - Michael Snow, The Artist’s Maman Book — Jean Gagnon
Ciel variable 122 - Night Rounds (Winter 2023)
Focus (Individual article, digital version)
Michael Snow
The Artist’s Maman Book | Et son maman book
— Jean Gagnon
Published some six months before his death, Michael Snow’s My Mother’s Collection of Photographs includes “typical family pictures,” notes Jean Gagnon. Gagnon gives an enlightening overview of the book, while reflecting on the book itself as an object. “[The book] lends itself to much rambling,” he writes by way of introduction; “readers can float contemplatively from page to page or look at individual images attentively in order to decipher historical documents.” He then admits that he is intrigued by the “material aspects” of the photographs. Beyond the portrait of the artist that emerges from the intimate views from page to page, Gagnon appreciates the book for its collective potential: “[Snow] shifts the maternal testimonial on these photographs from the status of memory (personal) to that of memorial traces.”
Details
Language : English & French
Digital Version : PDF, 4 Mb
Bibliographical Notice
Jean Gagnon, “Michael Snow — The Artist’s Maman Book” in Ciel variable, No. 122, “Night Rounds”, Montreal, 2023, p. 54-61.