SHOTS: ABSINTHE PHOTOGRAPHY
SHOTS: ABSINTHE PHOTOGRAPHY
Date: 2002 - 2013
Medium: In-situ digital photography, bottle of absinthe
Editions of 10
Dimensions: Variable
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Ahron Weiner first met the green fairy (the green devil, demon, scourge) in a postcommunist Prague catacomb. Stooled at the bar, he was captivated by the ritual: shot glass of absinthe, demitasse spoon of sugar, fire, light, stir, swig. His seeing was changed: by the way the shots reflected the flame.
Life itself greened on him: the color of (culture-)envy, (history-)jealousy, and the money that, at the time, most interested the East.
Hungover next morning, Ahron created a filter from bottles of absinthe, and set out, round the world, to manifest his vision – capturing warped, bent, distorted images of subjects so famous that intoxication is their normalcy.
Ahron's photographs, then, are photos of process: conscientiously sloppy, dandy, maudit, and mad. An American traveler's yearning for a fin de something denied. One of them reminds me of the time I swam the Moldau with open eyes.
-Joshua Cohen