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Nick Haymes "The Last Survivor Is the First Suspect"
Photographers' Gallery
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Nick Haymes
The photographers’ gallery is pleased to present the “The Last Survivor is the First Suspect” exhibition by Nick Haymes.
The Last Survivor is the First Suspect is a celebration and a requiem at once. The project, captured between 2005 and 2009 by photographer Haymes, is a record of a drifting community of young friends based mainly between two distinct geographic points: Southern California and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The book’s narrative merges a sense of joy in documenting burgeoning friendships and bonds, and a looming sense of dread that would ultimately culminate in a series of tragedies.
Weaving throughout the book’s intimate photographs are a series of digital screenshots identified as key to this moment in time, offering the viewer a secondary narrative of engagement. Social media was still relatively young, and Haymes became acutely aware of a new nodal sense of communication between these distinct groups of friends. Platforms such as MySpace, YouTube, and online message boards engendered a sense of community by enabling connection and setting new and impossible standards and expectations. Diligently collected, these various forms of communication between the characters frame a foreboding that grows as the pages turn. Haymes dots the pages with references to live geotags and URL addresses, allowing the curious viewer to dig deeper into the book’s subjective truths.
In Haymes’ introduction, he accounts for how his camera allowed him to compensate for the crippling shyness that developed during his teenage years. ‘I picked up a camera and hid, discovering I could once again be near people, intimate with them, without engaging,’ he writes. To create this publication, the artist has returned to a body of pictures, piecing together what happened to these people for himself. Here, Haymes invites us to form a contemporary engagement with this specific historical moment, where things are both different and equal. L.P. Hartley famously opened his coming-of-age opus, The Go-Between: ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.’ The Last Survivor is the First Suspect shows this sentiment with remarkable clarity.
The Last Survivor is the First Suspect is a celebration and a requiem at once. The project, captured between 2005 and 2009 by photographer Haymes, is a record of a drifting community of young friends based mainly between two distinct geographic points: Southern California and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The book’s narrative merges a sense of joy in documenting burgeoning friendships and bonds, and a looming sense of dread that would ultimately culminate in a series of tragedies.
Weaving throughout the book’s intimate photographs are a series of digital screenshots identified as key to this moment in time, offering the viewer a secondary narrative of engagement. Social media was still relatively young, and Haymes became acutely aware of a new nodal sense of communication between these distinct groups of friends. Platforms such as MySpace, YouTube, and online message boards engendered a sense of community by enabling connection and setting new and impossible standards and expectations. Diligently collected, these various forms of communication between the characters frame a foreboding that grows as the pages turn. Haymes dots the pages with references to live geotags and URL addresses, allowing the curious viewer to dig deeper into the book’s subjective truths.
In Haymes’ introduction, he accounts for how his camera allowed him to compensate for the crippling shyness that developed during his teenage years. ‘I picked up a camera and hid, discovering I could once again be near people, intimate with them, without engaging,’ he writes. To create this publication, the artist has returned to a body of pictures, piecing together what happened to these people for himself. Here, Haymes invites us to form a contemporary engagement with this specific historical moment, where things are both different and equal. L.P. Hartley famously opened his coming-of-age opus, The Go-Between: ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.’ The Last Survivor is the First Suspect shows this sentiment with remarkable clarity.
Schedule | Oct 17 (Tue) 2023-Oct 29 (Sun) 2023 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||
| Website | https://pg-web.net/exhibition/nick-haymes2023/ | ||
| Venue | Photographers' Gallery | ||
| Location | 401, 2-16-11 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0022 | ||
| Access | 2 minute walk from exit C7 or C8 at Shinjuku-sanchome Station on the Toei Shinjuku line. | ||
| Phone | 03-5368-2631 | ||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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