Counterweight, from the series “In the Truth”
Toms Harjo
2016
Photography. Archival quality pigment ink print. 60 x 79 cm.
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not use tobacco products.
The picture shows my former classmate – the first person who offered me to smoke.
I refused.
“In the Truth” series: Religious affiliation is an important pat of the identity of the artist. Since birth, Toms was brought up in the tradition of Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. Analysis of beliefs of this religion and author’s self analysis is at the foundation of a long-term photo project of Toms Harjo “As a Matter of Fact”. The series of photographs is a reflexion on human craving for belonging, their relations with belief and religion. This is search of balance between doubt and passionate belief, between a person and others, between loneliness and belonging.