
So Long
- Publisher
- Schilt Publishing
- Year
- 2021
- ISBN
- 9789053309520
So Long is a meditation influenced by the pandemic rather than purely about it. Kirk Crippens began the project on 17 March 2020, the day the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives, went into quarantine.
Two strands blend together: formal colour frames, made with a medium format camera on a tripod and inspired by Lars Tunbjörk's Office series, that record the serenity of empty offices; and black and white snapshots, made with a Polaroid Land Camera on peel-apart film kept for years in the refrigerator, that catch the dynamic distress of the time. A painted portrait of George Floyd, a Black Lives Matter poster and a mural honouring Amanda Gorman's inauguration poem place light on American racism, while dried oranges left on an office table by a worker who thought they would be away for a few weeks stand for businesses that are no longer robust.