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Tam, Ho
Lessons No. 15
2000

“Lessons No. 15” depicts a group of schoolchildren who are dressed in gym uniforms. The children are framed so that we only see the lower parts of their bodies. This photograph is from Tam’s “Lessons” series, a collection of photographs that he made after revisiting his childhood school in Hong Kong. Using a low resolution camera, Tam filmed his old school during his return. Then, he photographed parts of the film as it played on television. This process of making an image of an image not only affirms that reflection is often a very mediated act, but also gives “Lessons No. 15” a grainy and obscure quality, that evokes the tangling (blurring) effects of memory.

 
Tam, Ho
Hong Kong, China 1962
Lessons No. 15
2000
chromogenic print
54.2 x 64.4 cm (frame)
Gift of Herbert O. Bunt, 2006
49-015.14

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