Art forgery as smuggling
silver salt calotype, 2-MMC, 4-MMC,
brass frame,
dome-shaped glass, clothes, coffee, tea, dust, conservation wax
2025
at the end of the 19th century by two different photographers, at the rise of the demand for
souvenir images. Printed with calotype, one of the early printing techniques used at that time,
these photographs have two illicit substances dissolved within each: 2MMC and 4MMC, two
drugs almost identical to each other on a chemical level. A label on the glass discloses its
chemical formula, molar mass, and amount of substance contained.
Framed in a 19th-century frame, each is shown suspended above a disordered pile of
clothes and underwear, as if they were found inside luggage while being smuggled.