Static Motion

Photography and its limitations in instructing motion

In 2017, I came across a book on how to play table tennis. I wasn't interested in the subject of the book; what interested me was the use of photography. The images showed a model performing various strokes. However, the photographs seemed to have reached a limit in what they could explain to themselves. Drawings had been made on top of the photographs, and multiple exposures had been stitched together in order to teach about the direction of motion or show what happened the moment before and after the photograph was taken.

Since then, I've continued to research and collect photographs from sports and health manuals with similar workarounds. Looking at the archival images without their context, it's not clear anymore what they want to teach us. To me, confusing images arise. Parallel to my research, I've created images that deal with the same issues. Images that try to understand the limits of what can be taught about motion through static images. With these images, I also try to enhance the uncertainty when instructions for interpretation are missing.