Joanna Piotrowska
*A Most Gentle Touch*, 2019.
Gelatin silver print
Collection of Alice Russotti
© Joanna Piotrowska

Written by Alexander Loukopoulos

“Don’t we touch each other just to prove we are still here?”: Photography and Touch was born from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibit, on display at the Princeton University Art Museum until August 4, explores the physical sensation of touch and the different ways it can be represented through the mediums of photography, film, and video. Touch takes on multiple forms throughout the exhibit and reaffirms itself as a powerful vehicle for facilitating both social and material relationships.

Clifford Prince King
*Poster Boys*, 2000
Inkjet print
Quite_Liberace Collection by Shawneil Campbell
© Clifford Prince King / courtesy of the artist and STARS, Los Angeles

After chronic isolation, even simple gestures can conjure up a spectrum of new emotions. In Poster Boys pictured above, the framing is simple but hints at a larger, more intimate interaction between two people, possibly lovers. The simplicity of shifting the focus to their intertwined legs and keeping their bodies out of frame places the emphasis on what this playful physical connection suggests about the world beyond what viewers can see. What happens in this space is up to the viewer's interpretation, but the possibilities are endless. Like the subjects of this photo, touch redefines itself in its absence. Once found again, it may reveal itself in a plethora of different forms.

Other photos, like Mother below, take a different approach. With all three subjects clearly in frame, touch takes on a different form, one that suggests its correspondence with love and unity. While viewers can still make their assumptions about the space beyond the photo, Mother’s straightforward presentation of the capability of touch, as a means through which people can communicate, is undeniable and cathartic.

Lisa Sorgini
*Mother,* 2016–2022.
Inkjet print
Collection of the artist © Lisa Sorgini

Tabitha Soren
*Emailed Kiss Goodnight,* 2016
Inkjet print
Collection of the artist © Tabitha Soren

Touch does not always have to pertain to the outright physical. “Don’t we touch each other just to prove we are still here?”: Photography and Touch emphasizes how touch can manifest itself through the abstract. What imagery can possess viewers to understand what touch means or looks like rather than what it feels like? To Tabitha Soren, photographer of Emailed Kiss Goodnight above and theguardian.com/tourists_change_great_barrier_reef_for_ever below, touch means playfulness, creativity, and exploration. The glistening thumbprints smudged on both photos suggest eager hands fascinated with the images before them, which already depict scenes of intrigue and wonder.

Tabitha Soren *theguardian.com/tourists_change_great_barrier_r*
*eef_for_ever*
2018
Inkjet print
Collection of the artist © Tabitha Soren

Time has taught us that the physical sensation of touch is a currency in itself: the less we have of it, the more valuable it becomes. Coming out of the pandemic has proven this idea as such. Everyday instances of physical interaction can hold much more weight than previously thought possible. “Don’t we touch each other just to prove we are still here?”: Photography and Touch features many more photographs from other talented photographers who seek to recontextualize this often overlooked sense through the camera lens. May their work remind viewers how far something as simple as a hug can go for a friend or loved one in their life.