A new photobook pairs vintage watermarked “proof” photographs with prose to create stories of anonymous people.

What happens to the memories behind anonymous, discarded photos? What can we know about a person when all we have is a snapshot - discovered in an old shoebox, in a bin at some vintage store, or an archive some stranger is hocking on Ebay? What stories do we create in our minds to color the photos we find? In the case of Proof, published by emerging photobook imprint Sleeper Studio, sequencing such anonymous photographs with literary fiction can be an opportunity to provide new meaning.

Proof is a selection of vernacular proof photos from the collection of Robert E. Jackson, curated by publisher, photographer, and fellow vernacular-obsessor Ben Alper. On its own, it’s a bizarre testimonial to pre-Photoshop retouching. A nod to historical obsessions with fantasies of beauty and perfection. Red lines stretch across faces, cutting them up, scrutinizing, and suggesting “improvement.” Instructions for removing wrinkles. An opportunity to take home a memento of a major life event – a wedding or a graduation. Watermarks assuring a sale.

As images alone, Proof shows the power of images to deceive. But there’s more. The images are accompanied by texts by Edith Fikes - narrative lists and long-form tales that create new fictions for these images. Captions like: “I had my first auto accident when I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I was driving my father’s new car” and “Connie and Dean’s wedding, 1950. (Dean married Constanza and she changed her name to Connie.)” create a surreal historical memoir. It’s nostalgic but we’re not sure what for, a narrative that is as equally open-ended as it is specific.

I contacted Fikes, Alper, and Jackson to learn more about their process and ideas.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Edith Fikes, Ben Alper, and Robert E. Jackson