Gloves

“Like people, gloves face a crisis of meaning when they are lost. In this short series, I wanted to capture the existential tension of these estranged objects; a stray glove exists in limbo, anxiously waiting for its owner to retrace their steps so that it can be given purpose again. To me, the gloves represent the things that we think are static in our lives and how the true ephemeral nature of these seemingly static things becomes apparent only after they are lost; I imagine that the gloves in my photographs had become “the” gloves of particular individuals, and how these individuals had to come to terms with the fact that an object that had been part of their daily lives suddenly vanished. But while these ephemeral objects were lost, they are infused with hope; the gloves, having fallen to the ground from pockets and bags, have since been placed into elevated, visible positions by compassionate passersby, and it is my hope that we might consider the way that these estranged objects have been set up for reprise to imagine how we might do the same for one another when we, too, find ourselves lost. Just because something is gone now doesn’t mean it’s gone forever.”

Henry Romain is a poet from Des Moines, Iowa, currently finishing up his B.A. in English from the University of Southern California abroad at the University of Edinburgh. His work has appeared in Palaver Arts Magazine at the University of Southern California, The Inkwell and Contemporary Arts Society Magazine at the University of Edinburgh, The Underground Literary Magazine at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, and ONEA Zine. Sometimes, he likes to masquerade as a photographer, too.