Photos Enclosed: NYC
A Collaborative Mail Art Project
In the spring of 2009, Beacon NY photographer Stacey Ward Kelly took a series of digital photographs of New York City and sent a selection of these images to artists asking them to use her work to create a piece of mail art. Twenty-three artists participated by choosing one or more of her images and created a variety of mail art pieces that manipulated, collaged, poured resin onto or otherwise enhanced or altered Ward Kelly’s work. Some of the original photographs are featured in the book along with each mail art piece that was created for the project.
It sounded like fun, so I threw my piece into the mix. Now the project has become a book. You can see a full preview here. That’s the theme of my life lately. If it sounds like fun, I do it. I remember on of my professors in school was really into mail art. She had a huge collection and often used it for examples and inspiration in class. Now that most of our communication is done via email or facebook, it’s feels really good to slow it down and send something snail mail. The whole process of decorating an envelope or package and then going to the post office really gives more significance to the communication because all the people who see it along the way become involved, touched, annoyed, moved, motivated, whatever.
