A Brief History of the "1 Image 1 Minute" Project

This project is a contemporary recreation of Une Image Pour Une Minute, a project originally produced by French director Agnes Varda for presentation on French television in 1983. In Varda's version, a photographic image appeared on television (in-between network programming), and someone--a curator, photographer, or art historian--would speak about the image for one minute.


Here I have asked contemporary photographers, artists, historians, and others to select an image that has significance for them, and write or speak about it for the equivalent of 1 minute. The result is a a compelling and accessible means of gaining insight into other artists’ and photographers’ perspectives. The project is also a way of reactivating photo history, cultural literacy, and of offering a closer look at images than the mere fraction of a second that most contemporary images are afforded.

John Fitzpatrick


John Fitzpatrick, photographer
Elinor Carucci, Pain #8, 2003



I've always suspected that talking about the visual experience is a little like listening to a symphony through a tin can. That being said, and my hypocrisy justly exposed, I first came across Elinor Carucci's work with her book "Closer." The cover caught my attention strictly because of the nudity across its cover, so I opened it up hoping for more of the same. What I discovered was a sublimely intimate and astonishingly beautiful series. For me personally, it initiated an entirely new and artistic photographic world, and it's the sole reason I moved into color.

The image before you is titled "Pain #8" and it is a portrait of the artist herself. Asymmetry, saturated color, and pain (physical or emotional), are all mainstays of her work. What is typical of her photography is its visceral impact through intimate contact with the subject matter; in this case it exposes her struggle with a spine injury. Through these two-dimensional moments, she allows us to share in her, and in turn, recognize our own human experience.
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