"Untitled (Richmond Reading Blues #1), 2010 by Michael Lease.
Lease is interested in the idea of the obituary as a "public display of affection". This image is from a series entitled "Reading Blues" where the artist has clipped obituary images of African American men from his hometown of Richmond, VA. He enlarges the photographs emphasizing the beauty of the newspaper's half-tone printing process. Lease states "I cannot undervalue the opportunity that the daily perusal of the obits affords me. In their pages, I have the uncommon - and in Richmond, the unlikely - opportunity to look into the eyes of these men and wonder in which ways we are the same. www.michaellease.com