Today, I began a project combining my love for analog music formats and photography: Playback Pieces.
After flipping through my record collection, one night, I caught myself stopping to look at the images on each album. As I went I inspected different covers and found my mind transported to different moments: Where I was when I purchased the album, the significance of the music inside, what chapter my life was in, etc. There's a personal story with many of these physical objects, and when I put the music on and combine with the visual art those journeys open up even more.
I had been wanting to do more than just sell individual prints, and was struggling with how I could make my images bring more connectivity. In those moments looking at my records I realized I was holding the idea I was looking for. I also remembered that back in my college days I did screen printing for band flyers and t-shirts. It was an activity I really enjoyed because it required going through a series of steps, some patience, and my hands to pull it off.
After thinking about it, I decided I would create my own record releases but with my photography within. I landed on "Playback Pieces" as the title of the work because I think each word is perfect for this project.
Playback
: an act or instance of reproducing recorded sound or pictures
Piece
: a part of a whole
: a musical composition
This project really resonates with me because playing back pieces is what I’m doing when I view a photo or listen to an album. Often the piece (music or image) is helping me find a part of me or what I imagine is a part of what the artist gave themselves.
This first release contains pieces of the Swift Water series I launched on my site several months back. The images can be looked at while listening to some music, or they can be framed. Either way, the packaging is intended to encourage storing it among a record collection. And that’s what I really wanted to be reminded of in the experience.
Check out my first series in my store now. I've limited it to 5 copies.