Traffic Art Space and Edelman Arts

cordially invite you to a reception celebrating the opening of

TERTIUM QUID

Pictorial narratives created from vintage press photographs

by

Murray Moss

“A press photograph is defined by its function, which is to infuse a text with visual meaning in the telling of a news story.” Murray Moss writes in his introduction. Assembled from his own collection of archival annotated prints acquired from the photo morgues of a moribund newspaper industry, he writes, “these original photographs are for the first time shown without the newspaper text they were originally intended to accompany. “I have paired each image, at my own discretion, with another image, putting them in dialogue, and in the process creating a new narrative—a new life, a third story, a tertium quid.”

“These Original glossy silver gelatin prints bear the abuse of use – dings and creases, tears and grease pencil crop lines – and many have been heavily annotated by the newsroom, on verso. They cannot be evaluated by currently established standards of what constitutes a ‘good art print’; having been created as functional visual aides to be seen, not on gallery walls but in newsprint, they wear their professionals ‘blue-collar’ past with a rare dignity – indeed, with an unexpected but radiant beauty, heretofore uncelebrated but no longer ignored. At my own whim and discretion, I have paired each of these images with another orphaned print, putting them in dialogue, and in the process creating a new narrative, a new life, a third story, a tertium quid”.

-Murray Moss