Work created in response to A Yellow Rose Project. See more here: https://ayellowroseproject.com/kyra-schmidt
The lumen prints represented here consider ideas of collaboration, community, subjectivity, and collective memory. They are durational sun prints made with various black and white photographic papers. Each image is created through a collaborative meditation between myself and various individuals. Images from the women’s suffrage archive are superimposed onto the final unfixed lumen via a Xerox printer. The economical process merged with the fragility of the paper suggests the ephemerality of our defining moments, while considering how the archive not only curates memory but buries it as well.
Text borrowed from snippets of conversation, archives, and stream-of-conscious thought is embossed into the paper’s surface by hand. The act of mark-making is symbolic of perseverance, recognizing the countless individuals that have and still fight for equality. Merging past with present, their layering evokes obscured remnants of civil and political strife still relevant today. This series of images aims to prioritize universality and mindfulness within a pluralistic society, focusing not on gender or class, but individuality and personal connection.