Figure 1 – Hologram of Ancient Nubia. MFA, Boston, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2019.

A couple of weekends ago I went to the wonderful Nubia exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and took the image of Figure 1. It shows an ancient lamp with a sculpture of a horse, the shadow of the lamp, and a figure in the upper right handsome reflected dimly in the case glass. The optical set up here reminds me of how a hologram is produced. The shadow looms ominously. To me the point of the photograph is one of reality and shadows of the past and through the figure the shadowy relationship between the past and the present. We are defined by the past, and the past is defined by us in the present!