Tabitha Soren: hundreds-of-thousands-turn-out-for-women's-march, 2017

Tabitha Soren’s series, Surface Tension, encourages us to see our relationship with everyday technology in unexpected ways, highlighting the marks we leave on glass screens, which we routinely ignore or erase. The subjects pictured beneath the surface record our culture while the marks left by our fingerprints record our lives, our flitting attentions. They map how we spend our time. Using an 8-by-10 large-format camera, Soren shoots iPad screens under a raking light to reveal the tactile trail we leave behind. The science of touch clarifies that humans need to connect with the physical world. Yet, we spend an increasing amount of time satisfying only our sense of sight while touching the cold impervious surfaces of technological devices. In this image, Soren makes a connection between the touch on the screen and women’s efforts to touch power in the political sphere through marches, voting, and protests. Soren’s works are both painterly and resolutely photographic. They subvert the whole notion of a façade by bringing emotional depth to the surface and a mournful beauty to specular politics.