Mark Powell

Arróniz presents All Goodbyes by Mark Powell.

The project began with personal photographs: the place where I used to catch frogs  as a kid, now paved over by suburbia; a self-portrait in front of an abandoned barn I  once explored; the foyer of the building where I lived with my family; the mud bogged  truck before it was sold; my dad’s camping chair, built from lake driftwood; a rooftop  scene after the Mexico City earthquake; the reflection of red in a drink, seen through a  friend’s glass; a tree cut down before the dark clouds of a storm; the flames of a bonfire  in the garden where I grew up. These moments, while intimate, are offered not as  closed stories but as entry points for contemplation.

Everything that once had life now feels unfulfilled, as if suspended before reaching its  full capacity. Once alive or purposeful, these moments are now held in a state of  ambiguity. These images are about moving on and letting go, existing in the space  between what was and what remains. Their origin and biography are no longer  important. This is a form of photographic preparation for the viewer, or pure suspended  metaphor, and most importantly an eternal story.

Photography, in this context, is both anchor and trap. It preserves and fixes meaning in  ways that may never fully land, a very good thing. The tension lies not only in what is  seen, but in what is left unresolved. All goodbyes then become rehearsals for endings  I did not choose.

The image of stray dogs mirrors this state. They may have forgotten they once had  hands to grasp with, lost forever in sleep, never to tell.

–Mark Powell