Anne Collier

This book collects images that New York–based artist Anne Collier (born 1970) originally presented as a slideshow of 80 35mm slides depicting found images of female subjects in the act of taking self-portraits. Dating from the 1970s to the early 2000s, these relics of the analog age were collected by Collier, each image discarded by its original owner but finding its way back to relevance in Collier’s work. The slideshow consists of amateur snapshots of women photographing themselves with film cameras prior to the advent of the digital "selfie." Instead of circulating on social media, these abandoned images once existed for a private audience. The resulting work is steeped in a deep sense of loneliness, illustrating photography’s contentious relationship to memory, loss and self-representation. The book represents a kind of sequel to Collier's 2017 book Women with Cameras (Anonymous).

Dating from the 1970s to the early 2000s, these artifacts of the pre-digital age were collected by Collier over a number of years from flea markets, thrift stores and online market places. Each of these photographs has, at some point in the recent past, been discarded by its original owner. The concept of "abandonment," of photographic images and the personal histories that they represent, is central to Women with Cameras (Anonymous), which amplifies photography’s relationship with memory, melancholia and loss. The sequence of the images in Collier's book follows the format of her 35mm slide projection work Women with Cameras (Anonymous) (2016), that was recently shown to great acclaim in Tokyo, Japan, and Basel, Switzerland.

Published with MCA Chicago.

New York-based conceptual photographer Anne Collier (born 1970) creates neutral images of objects that already exist in the world, often charged with undercurrents of emotional complexity and vulnerability. Her work deftly addresses subjects inherent to both the act and industry of photography while simultaneously lampooning clichés and uncovering hidden truths. Describing Collier's work in Frieze magazine, the acclaimed author and critic Brian Dillon wrote, "Collier uncouples the machinery of appropriation so that her found images seem weightless, holding their obvious meaning in abeyance." This volume, part of the MCA Monograph series, accompanies the first major solo US exhibition of Collier's work. Alongside a selection of color plates, Michael Darling, James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator at the MCA, reviews the works in the exhibition within the context of the artist's career; Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, examines the artist's position within photographic and cinematic history; and novelist Kate Zambreno considers the fragments of lost objects and what it means to collect.