Eavesdropping · photographic field record
The roll is not public. Enter the access code.
Same register as the telephone secrets. The cover on the installation page is Frame 3.
Back to EavesdroppingIris Wren — Photographic Field Record.
The following roll was produced during Iris Wren’s photographic field assignment. Thirty-three exposures were anticipated. Eighteen files were returned from processing. Twelve correspond directly to Iris’s shot list. Six were returned under their original lab numbers without her prompt labels. Several expected images are absent. Several positions on the roll appear twice.
The sequence below preserves the intended order.
No attempt has been made to correct it.
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Frame 01 Unusable. outdated newspaper
- No image displayed.
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Frame 02 No labeled return. your own hand holding something from the box
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Frame 03 Returned. the object alone
Prompt 3 - Why is it easier to recognize when no one is holding it?
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Frame 04 Returned. a window from inside
Prompt 4 - Do not use the view outside the window to establish location.
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Frame 05 No labeled return. unusable / unidentified subject
Prompt 5 - Returned under original lab number. No prompt label.
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Frame 06 No labeled return. something old pretending to be current
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Frame 07 No labeled return. something current pretending to be old
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Frame 08 No labeled return. someone who looks like they’re waiting for a call
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Frame 09 Returned. someone’s hands
Prompt 9 - You can identify a person by their hands. I wish this were less true.
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Frame 10 Returned. a doorway before entering
Prompt 10 
Prompt 10B - An additional unlabelled file also occupies position 10.
- There should not be two Frame 10s.
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Frame 11 No labeled return. same doorway after entering
- There is no photographic evidence that Iris came back through the doorway.
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Frame 12 Returned. a window from outside
Prompt 12 - Compare with Frame 4.
- Do not use the pair to determine which side of the window the photographer occupied.
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Frame 13 No labeled return. a reflection in which you are barely visible or not visible
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Frame 14 No labeled return. a reflection in which you are partly visible
- Neither reflection survived.
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Frame 15 Returned. a place Iris has actually been before, but make it uncertain
Prompt 15 - I remember being here. I do not remember taking this.
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Frame 16 No labeled return. the thing that feels most like the room, even if it is not a room
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Frame 17 No labeled return. something that reminds Iris of Jack without naming him
Prompt 17 - An unassigned exposure exists at this position.
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Frame 18 Returned. something that seems to contradict today’s date
Prompt 18 - It does.
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Frame 19 No labeled return. a person who knows what year it is
Prompt 19 - An unassigned exposure exists at this position.
- Do not ask the subject.
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Frame 20 Returned. a face that refuses to become evidence
Prompt 20 - Do not identify subject.
- Do not enlarge.
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Frame 21 No labeled return. a pair of people who seem to belong to the same time
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Frame 22 No labeled return. something in transit
- Current location unknown.
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Frame 23 No labeled return. a table before anything happens there
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Frame 24 No labeled return. a table after something has happened there
- There is no surviving before. There is no surviving after.
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Frame 25 No labeled return. something you would not want Alexander to see
- Good.
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Frame 26 No labeled return. something that would make Alexander believe you
- Of course it is.
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Frame 27 No image returned. an absence
- Technically successful.
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Frame 28 Returned. something that proves today’s date
Prompt 28 
Prompt 28B - A second unlabelled file also occupies position 28.
- Both claim the same place on the roll.
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Frame 29 Returned. a phone that is not the phone
Prompt 29 - Confirmed: not the phone.
- Then why did I photograph it?
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Frame 30 Returned. public marker of time
Prompt 30 - Marker legible. Treat as unreliable.
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Frame 31 Returned. stranger from too far away
Prompt 31 
Prompt 31B - A second unlabelled file also occupies position 31.
- I think this is where the roll stopped belonging to me.
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Frame 32 No labeled return. a place Iris feels she has been before, even if she has not
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Frame 33 No labeled return. continuation / accidental exposure
- The roll was believed to end here.
- That has not been established.