when is a place #402, 2020Analog gelatin silver print
mounted to museum board
and framed
print, 16 × 20 in.;
board, 23 3/4 × 27 3/4 in.
Edition 1 of 7 + 2 AP
Bill Jacobson’s when is place #402 shows the darkened trunk of a tree rising in soft focus against an open field and distant woods. Its silhouette interrupts the horizon, yet its edges blur so that figure and ground nearly dissolve into one another. The photograph transforms the landscape into an imprint, more memory than record, suggesting the instability of perception itself. By numbering rather than naming his works, Jacobson underscores their serial nature, resisting narrative closure and emphasizing photography as process. In this way, the work reflects his enduring exploration of impermanence and the fragile ways place is continually remade through seeing. Inquire