The Day Nobody Died II

2008
(South African, b. 1970)
(British, b. 1971)
Overall: 76.2 x 600 cm (30 x 236 1/4 in.)
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location: not on view

Download, Print and Share

Did You Know?

This photograph was made without a camera and uses one of the oldest photographic technologies—directly exposing photosensitive paper to light.

Description

Uncomfortable with the role that war photography plays in propagating human suffering, Broomberg and Chanarin, when they were embedded with a British Army unit during the Afghanistan War, brought a roll of photosensitive paper instead of a camera. When a press-worthy event occurred, they exposed a six-meter-long section of the paper. The results are abstract photograms, unique images created by the temperature of the light at that moment in that place. The vertical bands, unintentional artifacts of handling and processing, nonetheless resemble measures or beats—space as a marker of time elapsing. The week the duo spent in Afghanistan was the deadliest week of the war thus far, but on their fifth day there, when the museum’s section of paper was exposed, no one was killed.
The Day Nobody Died II

The Day Nobody Died II

2008

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin

(South African, b. 1970), (British, b. 1971)
England, 21st century

Visually Similar Artworks

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.