A Measure of Time: 3 Seconds

In A Measure of Time: 3 Seconds I represent time objectively, in terms of photographic procedure; and subjectively, as a lived experience. With my own body as the subject, I use continuous lighting to capture 3 seconds of movement in each photographic negative. Next, I follow the standard darkroom process for developing the positive print right up until the final fix bath, before which, I expose each print to daylight for increasing measures of time: 1 second, 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 1 decade, and infinity.

The in-camera exposure is the primary measure of time in the photographic process, while the duration for which the paper is exposed to daylight is a secondary measure that encapsulates the essence of time within the photographic object, the print itself. The procedural and factual orientation of this work is supplemented by a more metaphoric aspect; the way in which I situates myself within the representation. In each photograph, I perform a movement that expresses a contemplative sense of being within the 3 second measure. The prints remain in process for their respective durations until fixed. With the ninth print unfixed, the work's gesture endures as far as time itself.

(2020/2022)

i (1 second)

ii (1 min)

iii (1 hour)

iv (1 day)

v (1 week)

vi (1 month)

vii (1 year)

viii (1 decade)

ix (infinite)

vi (1 month)

In 2022, from April 6th to May 28th, A Measure of Time: 3 Seconds was installed as a part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival at the Artspace Gallery in Toronto. Curated by Kelsey Myler and Christina Oyawale, the exhibition titled Fixations: Thoughts on Time, presented Tommy Calderon’s Dialectics (2019-2022) and A Measure of Time: 3 Seconds.

During the course of the exhibition, on April 21st, 2022, I held a performance in the Artspace Gallery, where 31 days following printing vi (1 month), I stopped the paper’s continual exposure to light by placing the print in fix, ending and encapsulating the 1 month long exposure of light on the photographic paper. Followed by rinsing the print in water to remove all of the residual fix, I then let the print dry and finally framed the image. No longer hanging by bulldog clips as it had ended it’s time being exposed, the framed image, objectively represents and indexes a 1 month measure of time. The purpose of the performance is to highlight the gesture in the work. As time passes the prints continue to be exposed to light and the gesture of fixing is what ends their respective measures of time.