No One Bears Witness to the Witness
Ed Epping
Poise
IV Amendment Under Siege
Artist’s Statement: I am an imagist and an activist. While my work in each is not analogous in content or form, the processes share strategies of implementation. My work has been powerfully influenced by Paul Celan’s phrase, “No one bears witness to the witness”. How we look…or, how we watch and witness our surroundings, determines much of what we mean when we begin a conversation, continue an argument, share a pleasure or remain silent. The “picture” we make of what we see dictates and is dictated by our capacity to empathize with that which we witness. Seeing is solitary even when shared with others. Being seen is what brings us together.
Ed Epping’s current work, CORRECTIONS, examines the parameters of social injustice witnessed in mass incarceration practices in the United States. Granary Books (NYC) has published four of Epping’s projects. His work has been collected by Yale, Harvard, the Center for Creative Photography, and the Getty Center, among others. Epping received his M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a professor of studio art at Williams College from 1977 to 2017. Epping lives in Galisteo, NM. https://www.edepping.com/