Life Begins in the Digital Age

My first grandchild was born at 6:52 a.m. Mountain time in Utah. His grandmother and I live in New Jersey, but thanks to the speed with which we can communicate in real time today via cell, text messaging, email, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, etc., the distance seems less. This was the most important event in my life today and will always be one of the most important events ever for my family.

I wanted to capture the instantaneous nature that is the electronic media we take for granted today, something which would have been considered miraculous when I was born--or even when my grandson's father was born for that matter--while at the same time taking something of the approach of artists such as Lee Friedlander, who took grainy pictures of television screens in hotel rooms (http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=56925). So I chose to take a photo of my computer screen with the picture I was sending to my colleagues at work via email, a photo which moments earlier I had received via MMS text messaging.