I studied photography in college.

Sometimes when I think about my work, I get stuck on this sentence.

 

I studied photography in college.

I studied photography in college.

I studied photography in college.

 

Once, in college, I had asked a friend for a mixtape, and he gave me a drawing. It said Asher Mixtape Hell. I kept it on my wall. Sometimes I suspected that the drawing was getting kind of personal. It had my name on it. What did Asher Mixtape Hell mean? What was my friend telling me?

 

Was I in Hell?

 

A few years later I made a book called Asher Mixtape Hell. It was a collection of photographs taken in my apartment in college. A lot of them had been shot as a way to learn how to make photographs. These were photos of nothing. There were a lot of photographs with Asher Mixtape Hell in them. The writing was on the wall. There was the title. Asher Mixtape Hell 2 is a sequel to Asher Mixtape Hell. After Asher Mixtape Hell I thought maybe I could start taking photos the way I did in college, but this time it would be OK. I’d still be in Hell, but maybe I could forget about college. I started taking photos in my apartment.

 

— Asher Penn, NY, 2009