CHRIS HERNANDEZ ORPHAN PHOTOS- Digital Images and Screen Captures

These photos came about due to an interest to turn film, or rather video files, into stills which

isolate and separate the video frame from the context of its original video source. The result

produced is a newly formed photograph which draws its ancestry from its parent medium, yet it is

a creation that is independent from it due to the many variables which occur. Cropping the original

image down to a specific selection of the video frame allows the photograph to take on a distorted

and magnified appearance and can transform it into an abstraction at times. The discarding of the

unwanted imagery from cropping and the morphing and devolving which take place as a result of

multi-generational video copies being made, also enable the new formed photograph to break free

of its parent bonds. The square photo format is another step in selectively editing out portions of

the parent image, emphasizing new subjects or enhancing original ones. More importantly, it

further orphans the photo from any widescreen cinematic references. In the image's final

development it is arranged and composed into an altogether new, visually narrative construction

by joining dissimilar photos together with it, into a larger collage. Scenes from different sources

merge and join to make new scenes, new narratives, new color patterns and new sequences. The

captured image files have evolved to become ingredients to a composition in which they were

never intended to be part of. The orphan photos have been given new homes. Depending on one's

point of view the photos have been adopted or kidnapped.