Photographer Olivia Arthur made this image back in 2011 while photographing in India. She was documenting an attack on a village and then a religious ritual. She was shooting with a film camera and realized at a point that the film should’ve come to an end. Instead, she had been shooting photos over one another on the sale roll of film. We might call this a happy accident, but it can also be looked at as a statement piece. It’s part of the current Magnum Square Print Sale, too.
Image by Olivia Arthur. Used with permission. It’s part of the current Magnum Square Prints Sale around the theme of Fable. You can buy a print until May 5th.
In the current Square print sale, there are lots of multiple exposure photographs, which are some of our favorites. So we asked Olivia about how a multiple exposure adds to the power of the still image.
To me a photograph is strongest when it conveys a feeling or impression about something rather than being too literal. I think the power of photography lies in its ambiguity. So in this case the layered images gives the feeling of what was going on without picking out any specific part and I think there is more emotion in it than if it had been just the broken building or the girls portrait. It feels like a dream (or nightmare) of all of the different things going on, is confusing but that is representative of the moment for me.
Olivia Arthur
Indeed, this is a completely different kind of documentary photo than what we’re used to seeing. All of the images stacked upon one another allow us to see so many pieces of what was photographed within that village. We can see a man in a tank top, a woman in a sweater or shawl of some sort, a bike, earrings, the outside of a building, trees, a street, etc. The darker parts of the frame are overtaken by the brighter parts as that’s typically how additive multiple exposures work.
The photograph from Olivia is something far away from what we typically see when an attack happens on a village. Instead of being a broken down photo essay, it’s a multiple exposure telling various things in a single frame. The frame forces you to stare and find new things in the image all the time.
In our opinion, it’s simply one of the best pieces of imagery that we’ve seen in years. And furthermore, it separates the talent of Olivia out from so many content creators posing as photographers on social media. Instead, Olivia truly has made a statement photograph worthy of the Magnum Square Print sale.