Joshua Mokry, MFA Photography Graduate Student, Texas Tech University

Project Statement:

I made a total of six pinhole cameras out of paint cans with light-sensitive paper placed on the inside. Laying them out in my backyard in Houston during the winter of February 2020, these ‘cameras’ took note of each sun pattern and weather condition. I had no definite time frame in mind.

That same month, I learned of a new virus strain in Wuhan, China. As time progressed, I began to see a connection between the solargraphs, the pandemic, and personal events that came and went throughout my life. The cameras degraded and rusted, and the paper inside molded over time. The sun etched streaks of light – each one representing a day. Some streaks are faint, some not even visible – just as some of my days became a blur. As the days passed by in quarantine, I lost track of time in its entirety.

8 Months challenges environments of chaos, calling upon the need for reflection as time passes by. The COVID-19 pandemic, the divisive 2020 U.S. presidential election, and the protests that swept the nation thereafter are just a few of the moments that seemed to pass so swiftly, yet remain so strongly in our thoughts after the fact. Through 8 Months’ slow and indeliberate process, I ask the viewer to breathe, meditate, and introspect between moments of chaos and push beyond a sense of uncertainty. This work takes a broader, indefinite approach of meditation on contemporary historical events as they take place in real time, in an attempt to find positivity throughout moments of communal desperation.