My Life Still Life #4504

Artist: Joseph Labate
Size:   10" x 13.5"
Medium: Archival Photograph on Cotton Rag Paper
Info: www.JosephLabate.com
 
My Life Still Life

Over the years I have worked and continue to work on a diversity of photographic problems. Doing so, I sometimes collect things that I come across here and there and things that people give to me. I bring them into my studio, and arranged in various configurations, photograph them. I then process and often combine the images using a computer. These photographic constructions of bits and pieces offer a glimpse into my life, both directly and metaphorically. Note that I also have made work out in the world, work that is juxtaposed to my studio work. I value the back and forth relationship that those two modes provide and how they influence one another.
 
And then COVID 19 showed up. Early in the year this deadly virus profoundly affected my life. I had been working on a project, one out in the world with crowds of people in small enclosed interior spaces. The danger was very real so I had to end that project. Since then I’ve been in self-imposed isolation, for months and anticipate this continuing for an indeterminate amount of time. I am keeping to myself and limiting myself to my studio work. As I’m sure it is for many others, it’s a strange and disturbing time for me. But I am grateful to have something that feels valuable to focus on and that provides me with gratification.
 
Joseph Labate
August 2020