Marcia Johnson
Artist's Statement
Time what an empty vapor 'tis,
Our days how swift they are....
—Isaac Watts, 1707
Some women love shoes...some purses...some jewelry; I love beautiful watches – they are intricate and sort of mysterious - and would own dozens of expensive ones if I could afford them.
In our family, there remain three antique pocket watches – all in working order. They appear in these photographs.
The small gold watch was my mother's, the larger watches belonged to my husband's grandfather and father. There is a lovely patina on these watches; I look at them and imagine the hours the watches ticked away as these folks – long departed from this earth – held, depended on, used, and enjoyed looking at them.
Also making an appearance – for the first time in my macro photo collection – are parts of old pocket watches loaned to me by a friend who repairs watches as a hobby. I thought it would be really interesting to get out my macro equipment and get some close-up portraits of these old timepieces and the parts that make them work - all those tiny jewels, wires and wheels just begged for macro treatment.
These photographs, from the closed, small gold watch, to the insides of still-working old watches, to the saddening remains of watches that were but are no longer – stand as a metaphor for the passing of time – they remind us that time, after all, is an empty vapor. We should remember that.
