Lost and Found: The Search for Edna & Harry
by Jeff Phillips
Location: Post-Security, Concourse West Wall
In 2012, I found more than a thousand unmarked photographs of an unknown man and woman, seen traveling the world during the 1950s. Who are these people? Where are they now? Why were their photographs abandoned? I created the Facebook page Is This Your Mother? and began posting one image per day, predicting that it would take years before the couple were recognized. The response to the page was astounding. An army of internet sleuths appeared, scouring the web for clues to the couple’s identity. Ultimately, the couple was identified, and contact was made with the family.
These photographs are superb snapshots that have been stripped of their original context, and sixty years later we are free to give them new meaning.
About the Artist: Jeff Phillips
Jeff Phillips is a photographic artist who has spent most of his career working in St. Louis and Chicago. His work explores the intersection of traditional and contemporary photographic themes, often by appropriating vernacular images from the past and presenting them in modern, contemporary contexts.
To learn more, visit JeffPhillips.me
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