So Long is a meditation influenced by the COVID pandemic, not purely about it. Kirk Crippens began creating photographs for this project on March 17, 2020, the day the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives, went into quarantine. The last photograph was made on May 22, 2021; a lot had changed.
Crippens’s photography started as two projects but elegantly blend together: the formal color photographs, made with a medium format camera on a tripod and inspired by Swedish photographer Lars Tunbjørk’s Office series, document the serenity of empty offices, and black and white snapshots, taken with Polaroid 250 Land Camera and a peel-apart Fuji pack film, that had been preserved in the photographer’s refrigerator for years, capture the dynamic distress of the time.
Listen to the podcast Artist talk – on photography#1 – with Kirk Crippens.
Other books by Kirk Crippens:
Live Burls
Going South Big Sur
Schilt Publishing, 2021