Judy Linn by Hilton Als

In her photographic work, Judy Linn records the ineffable. Her images of people, places, objects are seen through the skein of democratization. Good photographs generally deny verbalization; verbalization generally leads to sarcasm—a tone that Judy Linn’s work does not affect. To say that Judy Linn’s photographs are not literary would be a falsehood; to try and characterize what kind of literature Judy Linn’s photographs are would be a deliberate falsehood.

That the mind goes blank while standing in front of a Judy Linn image hints at one of the truths her photographs contain; to say that the mind becomes filled with words as one tries to describe what happens in a Judy Linn photograph is a truth as well. Linn’s photographs effect the mind overall. In her photographs, one sees an automobile as just an automobile. Simultaneously, one asks oneself: Am I an automobile, too?

—Hilton Als