PhotoForum #105: Known treasure that can only be examined in a second life - Julie Downie
PhotoForum #105: Known treasure that can only be examined in a second life - Julie Downie
Known treasure that can only be examined in a second life
Photographs and text by Julie Downie
Published by PhotoForum Inc., May 2025
Designated as PhotoForum #105
Design by Jonty Valentine
165 x 220mm, 52 pages, soft cover
First edition 165
ISSN 0111-0411
“Known treasure that can only be examined in a second life features images that have the appearance of singularity but collectively embody the fascination I have with objects; from the fully functional to the seemingly superfluous. Made over several years they represent different timelines of acquisition, and culminating in some cases after many iterations. Living amongst these objects has been a way for me to both examine and work out their potential agency.
Objects, or the wider realm of things are carriers of meaning, they are neither mute, nor innocent, or neutral; fashioned from materials drawn from earth’s resources, and made by human hand or machine, or shaped by evolutionary processes, I have remained beguiled. The leading question that stays with me - is how is meaning being performed through these things? I have happened across a number of guides along my research trails but one has remained constant in this meandering, the writer Walter Benjamin, who assisted in poetically framing this enquiry one day when I read: “Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars.” For everything is held in multiple webs and assemblages of relations that are not always perceived or understood in that first encounter with an object.”
“Known treasure that can only be examined in a second life features images that have the appearance of singularity but collectively embody the fascination I have with objects; from the fully functional to the seemingly superfluous. Made over several years they represent different timelines of acquisition, and culminating in some cases after many iterations. Living amongst these objects has been a way for me to both examine and work out their potential agency.
Objects, or the wider realm of things are carriers of meaning, they are neither mute, nor innocent, or neutral; fashioned from materials drawn from earth’s resources, and made by human hand or machine, or shaped by evolutionary processes, I have remained beguiled. The leading question that stays with me - is how is meaning being performed through these things? I have happened across a number of guides along my research trails but one has remained constant in this meandering, the writer Walter Benjamin, who assisted in poetically framing this enquiry one day when I read: “Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars.” For everything is held in multiple webs and assemblages of relations that are not always perceived or understood in that first encounter with an object.”