Last Days of the News and Record Photo Exhibition by Mercer Bufter

September 2 - 6, 2025
Reception: Friday, Sept 5th | 6-8P

About Last Days of the News and Record

I didn’t think much about the News and Record building until they started knocking it down. Then I got kind of obsessed. I photographed the building and site routinely, mostly while I was doing other things. I used whatever camera and film I was carrying at the moment. In that way, my photos of the News and Record are both intentional and careless, considered and unplanned. All of the stories connected to that site are basically hidden from me. The photographs are simply visual explorations of what it’s like to wonder about a specific place many times over many months. In addition to the prints on the wall, there are two volumes of photos for passers-by to browse. The News and Record site is a small plot and an inherent part of this work is the repetition of views and details as they changed over the months. The interior photos, on the other hand, cannot be updated since the destruction of the building was final. Those images, and the hidden stories connected to them, receded farther and farther into the past as the site was cleared of machinery, cleared of rubble, and filled in with grasses and weeds. They continue to recede, I suppose, as the geese enjoy the new little pond they’ve gained since the demolition of the News and Record.