The Magazine – Darby Photos 207 Review by Maggie Grimason
Darby Photos. Columbine High School, Columbine Colorado, 49 x 41 inches, 2015. Courtesy of the collection of Joanna & Duncan MacKenzie.
“In a world of fast-paced information, the growing list of schools where such tragedies have occurred surfaces in the news cycle and then disappears again. It is troubling how the particular horror of each fades from our collective and individual memories. The long view is perhaps what we need. In 207, we are offered the particular stories, as well as—in a glance, even—a suggestion of the cumulative impact of gun violence. In these buildings, 207 people, mostly children, were shot and killed or injured. In the aftermath, even more than a decade later, Photos poured hundreds of hours into memorializing each place. If only we all dedicated such care and attention to contemplating the complexities that created crime scenes out of schoolyards. Quilting is a craft that requires an intense amount of time and labor; the commitment to each of these portraits evidences Photos’ sincerity and earnestness—but there’s something else in the medium that works uncannily well with its subject. Look closely and you can see the individual strokes that hold the whole scene together, with something as delicate as a cut of ivory thread. Something in the medium, too, suggests the idea of unraveling.”
Read the full review below
https://themagsantafe.com/207-2/