Selections from ‘Screen Time’, a continuation of @matthewjohnson ‘s long-standing exploration of nostalgia and the emotions alongside. Before ‘Screen Time’, Matthew’s shift from commercial photography toward abstraction began with his series ‘Above Ground’, a collection of 35mm images made through elapsed exposures from moving vehicles. What started as a mistake evolved into a deliberate practice, its genesis in the above-ground subway lines of New York and later beyond to cities around the world. “The beginning of my series “Screen Time” probably started most in earnest after Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance last year. I found myself fascinated in the conversation around it, and thought this could be an interesting way of participating in the discourse. Like “Above Ground”, there was something in this work that allowed people to recall a memory, or nostalgia of the performance, even tho it had just happened. Perhaps it evoked how they felt watching the performance instead of simply what they saw. I can’t remember two collective viewing experiences more important to people (or so close in time to each other) than Bad Bunny’s halftime performance and Alysa Liu’s Olympic triumph. So many of us watched them together, and watched them the same way. And watched them again, and again. They offered a sort of joy and inspiration that has felt somewhat unattainable lately. In approaching the body of work in a similar way I have approached ‘Above Ground’ for over a decade - allowing enough room in the imagery for the viewer to ascribe their own meaning, I’ve been finding it interesting to explore the idea not exactly of what the collective conscience is, but how we remember those moments making us feel.” | Milk Studios