ABSTRACT
Ken Gonzales-Day’s The Wonder Gaze (St. James Park) (2006-present) is a large-scale, panoramic photomural picturing a crowd gathered outdoors at night. Reflecting the analogue aesthetics of black and white flash photography, the figures in the foreground have been reduced to ghostly silhouettes, bright white shapes standing out against a black background. Men in suits and hats make up the majority of the crowd, but a few women are also present. Smoking, talking, standing around or milling about and swelling beyond the limits of the frame, the crowd appears aloof, orderly, composed. Most people have their backs turned, looking off into the distance or at one another, but some glance over their shoulders, turning to face the photographer, their expressions extinguished by the camera’s blinding flash. A single tree bisects the picture plane, providing the only evidence of the outdoor setting. The costuming of the crowd and the flash’s saturation of the scene imbue the image with an anachronistic and mysterious character. With few clues as to what brought all these people together, the event pictured is itself unclear and elucidated only by the title of the series in which The Wonder Gaze is included: Erased Lynching.1
