when is a place #448, 2020Analog gelatin silver print mounted to museum board
and framed
print, 16 × 20 in.;
board, 23 3/4 × 27 3/4 in.
Edition 2 of 7 + 2 AP
Bill Jacobson’s when is place #448 depicts a hillside rolling beneath a pale sky, its contours softened into atmospheric gradients of gray. The horizon bends gently, bordered by shadow and foliage, but no detail fully resolves. Instead, the scene hovers like a recollection, a fragment drawn from memory rather than fixed in time. Jacobson’s decision to title his photographs with sequential numbers avoids descriptive cues, shifting attention away from subject matter toward perception itself. As throughout his practice, defocusing and serial numbering together highlight the instability of vision and ways in which photography mediates both memory and place.Inquire