“We are accustomed to the look and feel of old photographs and sometimes they start to blur together. But add a caption directly onto a photograph — handwritten, typed, emblazoned, scratched — and we are magically drawn in.

This installation presents a series of photographs we think have that magic. Through collage, enlargements, details, and original vintage photographs, we offer you humor, sweetness, confession and mystery.

Each caption is an intervention that inserts itself into the picture. It is an additional voice inviting us to re-experience the image and challenge what we thought we knew. Often the caption contradicts the image, can rarely be ignored, and has the final word.

Accompanying the installation is the book, Caption This: A photographic collection of Amusing comments, Snarky asides, and Romantic admissions by Barbara Levine and Paige and published by Princeton Architectural Press.”

– Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey
in collaboration with Martin Venezky

This project is made possible by the the artist in residence community partnership program at Cherryhurst House. Images courtesy Collection of Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey.