PRESERVATION ANXIETY

FOTOHOFNovember 2020Selected by Alexis Zavialoff & Maia Asshaq

In A worm crossed the street, we are again confronted with the archive, but this time through the lens of how even the best preserved will eventually succumb to time and decay. The images collected in this book depict the decomposing forms found in Vienna’s Natural History Museum, which appear as shadows of their former selves. These black-and-white images present animal bodies, skeletons and other previously living matter alongside short texts. Looking at diminished objects of the past, we are left to think about the speed at which time moves, and how, no matter how much we try to preserve these objects, we will never stop its march. — Alexis Zavialoff and Maia Asshaq