To constitute a portfolio, these photographs would have to cohere in subject, vision, or at least appearance, but they do all pursue a purpose. They are all meant to puzzle viewers as expressed by photographer / collector Allan Chasanoff: by creating "a problem of vision" (in "The Challenge of Confusion," by Anne. W. Tucker). By causing some "perceptual disturbance," these images are meant to lead viewers to ask, "What is this?" (meaning "What is depicted here?" "What is the content?"). However, "if you know the content, you're going to be 'contented'" ("An Interview with Allan Chasanoff" by Aletti and Tucker). All these images, then, are meant to stir up perceptual discontent. This project is risky. To some viewers, these images will be "playing games." To others, they will fall flat because the puzzle is too easily solved. To others, they will appear coy. However, to break "the power of the medium to make you think you are looking at the thing itself and not at a picture...propaganda," I accept those risks.
The images in "Nets" and "Shadows" also pursue this purpose but are specific and unified enough to merit separate portfolios.
On the MoMA's page devoted to Piet Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie," the artist characterizes the work's aesthetic as "destruction of natural appearance; and construction through continuous opposition of pure means—dynamic rhythm." This photograph's pure means, its structures and colors, less refer to visible objects than evoke visual and commercial extravagance. However, I did make this photograph steps away from Broadway.
New York, NY, 2015