Without a Face
Six essays on the people the archive does photograph, and the faces it still refuses. The figure cut down to a hand, the back that never turns, the person present only as a shadow, the crowd in which no single face matters, the pilgrim erased to a silhouette, and one figure walking away, kept anonymous on purpose.
The Cropped Figure
A wrist, a glove, a watch, and no face. The archive photographs people as fragments, and the fragment is about the day.
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The Back Turned
His back is to the camera at the top of the swing. The oldest way to include a person without making the photograph about them.
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The Shadow
The man is barely in the picture. Everything of him is a shadow thrown long across the green, and it is enough.
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The Crowd Has No Face
Thousands at the foot of the Kaaba, and not one face is legible. The crowd is the opposite of the portrait.
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The Silhouette
Backlight takes the faces cleanly away. Where the crowd removes the face by number, the silhouette removes it by light.
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One Figure, Walking Away
One man pushes a cart away down an empty platform, and never turns. A face would make him one man; this keeps him every man.
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