John_Running_000073, 2011

Many of Tabitha Soren’s photographs, in series with titles like Uprooted and Panic Beach, are filled with tension, ambiguity, and a vague sense of dread. This 2011 photograph, from the series Running, embodies several of those characteristics, and the strangeness of the image raises questions in the viewer’s mind. Where is this action taking place? Is the subject running for pleasure or being chased? Does the photographer’s presence implicate her in the (possibly sinister) action? The work’s title, 000073, does little to answer such questions, and leaves the narrative possibilities of the scene tantalizingly open-ended.

C-Print
Image Size: 13 3/4 x 18 3/8 inches
Paper Size: 16 x 20 inches
Edition of 15
Signed and numbered by the artist

Tabitha Soren (b. 1967, San Antonio, Texas) is an artist and Peabody Award–winning journalist, best known for her work with MTV News. Her photographs are held in many private and public collections, including those of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New Orleans Museum of Art; George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California; Cleveland Museum of Art; Oakland Museum of California; and Pier 24, San Francisco. Her work has been featured in Dear Dave, McSweeney’s, Vanity Fair, New York Times Magazine, Blink, Slate, New York, Sports Illustrated, California Sunday Magazine, and ESPN The Magazine.Soren lives and works in Berkeley, California.