Free Meaning

"The practice of making photo albums from found photographs is similar to Surrealist film practices. Both practices rely on fragmentation and de-contextualization, followed by an imaginative recombination that does not respect the intentions of the original owners. For the Surrealists, existing films were 'found objects' to be fragmented and used. Finding obscure details within a film aided in the dissolution of the film, and thus to the interruption of its ideological effects."

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"Is it any surprise, given their interests in fragmentation, that the Surrealists became collectors and exhibitors of found objects? The Surrealists understood that context 'fixes' meaning. They tried to free meaning by destroying or altering context."

~ Barry Mauer, "The Found Photograph and the Limits of Meaning" (Enculturation, Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 2001)