Image 1: Benjamin Rasmussen; Image 2: Irina Rozovsky

Friend of the gallery and excellent photographer, Joshua Dudley Greer, made up a new game on Instagram that I am kind of obsessed with.

In this game, one person sends another individual two unrelated pictures. The challenge is to connect them using 8 photographs, ultimately creating a sequence of 10 images in total. Connections can be based on concept, content or form, but no artist can be repeated.

Lisa and I immediately wanted to join in, and sent each other a challenge. Above are the two images that Lisa sent me.

It became apparent right away, that for a nerdy photo gal like me, this game is pretty addictive. It is just so interesting for me to see how people think. As I look at the sequences that a person builds, I feel like I get a little window into how their mind wanders. So here’s a little peek into the mind of Mia:

Version 1 credit: Benjamin Rasmussen / Evzen Sobek / Jon Tonks / Evgenia Arbugaeva / Filippo Venturi / John Chervinsky / Julien Mauve / Brandon Thibodeaux / Dima Gavrysh / Irina Rozovsky

As I construct an edit, it feels like a photographic ​“choose your own adventure” story. I decided to do two different versions of the challenge that Lisa sent me. I loved seeing how the same beginning and end photographs can have wildly differing stories and aesthetics to connect them. Here is how the second sequence turned out:

Version 2 credit: Benjamin Rasmussen / Joe Johnson / Rachel Papo / Chan Nyein Aung / Rania Matar / Beatriz Polo / Jennifer Thoreson / Isabel McGowan / Romina Ressia / Irina Rozovsky

This process feels especially poignant to me right now, and has been unexpectedly comforting. In a moment when we are all required to social distance, it is easy to feel isolated. Sometimes I feel like a little planet spinning on its own solitary orbit. The unanticipated joy that I have found in all of this, is witnessing the ways that people creatively connect to one another. And so, the act of taking two disparate images and building a bridge between them feels right. I am continually tempted to focus on the deepening cracks in our societal structure. However, quietly linking these images, in the silence of my own home, I think about the artist that made each photograph. How, by using the confines of their viewfinders, they made these tiny worlds for me to enter and rest in. Finding momentary homes for each photograph in a new sequence helps me to focus on the uncommon ways that we can spin threads of connection. It’s a welcome mode of thought.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be reaching out to our photographic friends- artists, curators and editors and inviting them to join in on the game with us. If you care to play, then here are the rules of engagement:

Send a friend 2 unrelated pics. They must connect them using 8 photographs, ultimately creating a sequence of 10 images in total. Connections can be based on concept, content, or form, but no artist can be repeated.

• Tag your Challenger
• List and tag (if possible) all the artists you featured. Make sure to list them in proper order in your caption as well.
  
• Use #jpegsofseparation

Send the challenge on to another! If you care to, you are allowed to make up 1 extra rule specifically designed just for them.

Please join us and play!

- Mia