Julia Schlosser

(b. 1962, Los Angeles, CA. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA)




Seen/Unseen, from the series Walking in the Time of Corona
Video, sound, 2:18 min. Best viewed in full-screen.

Under Covid-19 isolation, artist Julia Schlosser began walking endless circles in the few blocks surrounding her Los Angeles home, a neighborhood known as the Bull Creek Pocket. On March 29, 2020, she started taking iPhone photographs, making maps of her walks using Google Earth, keeping lists of subjects she does not photograph. “My neighborhood is the container for my anxiety, fear, boredom and loneliness. The quiet events marked on my sidewalks and streets are the sole tangible means I have of experiencing the horrific life and death consequences of the pandemic. Animals are the only beings who seem ‘safe’. I’m not likely to make them sick and vice versa, and they don’t avoid me as I walk like the people do. At first, I carried a ruler with me because I wanted every piece of evidence to be the same relative size in the photographs: eighteen inches from the camera. Now I just measure on my leg, but like everything in this series, it’s a flawed attempt at control. If I’m rushed or excited, I get closer or farther away. And I always struggle for balance. I struggle to keep the camera level to the ground. I don’t touch or move anything. I move myself and my camera but none of the subjects that I photograph.”