Recto/verso
The recto is the right hand page of an open book. The underside of that sheet of paper is the verso. In classical art, the recto is the original painting, and the verso is the backside of a reused canvas.
Or is it the other way around?
I took the first photo in Helena, Montana while looking in windows, then at windows. Recto: Light from the scene behind me reflected off the glass. Verso: Light passed through the glass from the scene inside. Since then, I’ve looked for compound scenes in Philipsburg, Montana, at my mom’s school in New Jersey and on the train to Girona, Spain.
These photographs combine two independent moments into a single event and compress two isolated scenes into a single plane. Recto: These contradictions remind us that photography has limited power to express time and space as we experience them. Verso: These contradictions remind us that photography includes the freedom to create new images unbeholden to reality.
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