shift

shift (2026)
8x10 - Lustre Print
 
 
Photographer: MCP Photo
Model: McKenna C Poe
Location: Between Space Studio
 
CAESIUM - a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal and one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at room temperature. The International System of Units uses a specific hyperfine neutral caesium to define the basic unit of time, the second.
 
Artist’s Statement: What defines a second? How much can happen within one? If we’re lucky, we get to experience so many in our lifetimes, and with the pace of our current world, it can be hard to appreciate and savor the little moments, the seconds of time, that we get to experience. In my artistic lifetime, I’ve defined myself as so many things: a ballerina, an actor, a student, a business owner, a photographer, a designer - the list goes on. We seek to define our personhood and our seconds in order to validate progress in our society that doesn’t reward rest. Through this project, I wanted to visualise a second of unrest, a second of joy, a second of just being. By opening the camera shutter for exactly a second, measured by the combustion rate of Caesium, I aim to capture just that: being.
 
Proceeds of the prints from this collection are split equally between the photographer and the organization or crowd-funding effort of the photographer’s choice. McKenna has selected Bushwick Ayuda Mutua, a network of neighbors supporting neighbors in Bushwick. Find out more at BushwickAyudaMutua.com
 
See more @mcpphoto.png on Instagram or at MCPPHOTO.com
 
Audio Recommendation: “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” covered by Sammy Rae and The Friends