CIAO MONICA Charles Johnstone

 
Part of Johnstone's trio of books by featuring Polaroid photographs taken of the actresses Setsuko Hara , Monica Vitti and Moira Schearer. Johnstone shot each of the actresses from their most iconic film role, off his TV set . 
 
“.... Charles Johnstone’s series of three books Ciao Monica, Sayonara Setsuko and Red Shoes are contemplative examinations that register the aforementioned thoughts regarding technology, memory, and fantasy played out in television screen shots on expired Polaroid film. The drippy viscous surfaces of which add layers to the substantive portraits of the sitters that Johnstone is focused on. It is hard to imagine that the choices Johnstone has made in selecting his subject- if one screen removed, are simply an ambivalent pursuit to his interests presenting the case for desire and obsession as mentioned. It is a way to reclaim it seems the fertile ground of youth, but also a way to exist with ideal choices of the mother, lover or goddess etc. In some strange parallel universe , Johnstone has manufactured a collaboration with the memory organ of his youth and with the woman in his images.  
- Brad Feuerhelm  “Charles Johnstone’s Polaroid Memory Screen Tests”   American Suburb X , July 31, 2019  
 
 
2018  
soft cover, Japanese stab binding
off set , French fold paging
6” x 8” (15 1/2 mm x 20 1/2 mm)
24 Polaroid images
printed in Dalton, Mass by the Studley Press
edition of 100