An extended illustrated account of the Hollis Frampton film that marks
critical moment in art history when photography meets filmmaking.
In his 1971 short film, (nostalgia), American artist and writer Hollis
Frampton oveturned the conventional narrative roles of words and images.
In his account of an artists's transformation from photographer to
filmmaker, Frampton burns photographs he had taken and selected from his
past along with one found photograph. A calm voice tells a story about
an image, but the story is about the following image, not the one shown.
Confounding comprehension still further, the narration begins and ends
during the photograph's combustion; smoke and ashes get in our eyes
while we are trying to make sense of the image and the narration--trying
to remember the story that fits the image, trying to remember the image
that fits the story... Frampton's (nostalgia) is a formal masterpiece,
long overlooked and understudied. It emerges from a body of film work
that is rarely screened, the prints damaged and difficult to locate.
Frampton's work is valued in artist filmmaking and film theory circles,
but it has never taken its rightful place at the heart of modern art
theory. This study will introduce a new generation to a critical moment
in art history--when (nostalgia) confirmed both the essence and
fragility of cinema itself. Afterall Books are distributed by The MIT
Press.