Above The Fold examines the images that appear on the front pages of the New York Times from the NATO bombing in Kosovo in 1999 to the present. In March 1999, I was struck by the preponderance of images of refugees fleeing Kosovo that appeared above the fold on the front page of the New York Times delivered to my door each day. I decided to start saving the front section of the Times when NATO began bombing the Serbian military positions in Kosovo.  My idea was to have a stack of newspapers that visualized a war. When the war ended, however, I continued saving, and I have not stopped. What started out as my attempt to visualize a war evolved into a multi-faceted project that is a concrete manifestation of contemporary trends and the biases of U.S. media. In my studio, there are currently over 9,000 front page sections sorted into 33 categories suggested by the photograph above the fold. War & Conflict is the largest category, and Sexual Violence is the smallest. By classifying the papers according to the subject matter of the photograph on the front page, I can highlight the absence of certain images and overabundance of others in the Times, which is regarded as the U.S. "newspaper of record."

Numbers can pose questions. By drawing attention to the overabundance of some images and the absences of others, I want to suggest counter histories. I am interested in questioning how mainstream media’s focus on objectivity has minimized systemic injustices and current threats to democracy. The credibility of journalists and photographers are increasingly questioned, previously trusted major newspapers are both censoring and self-censoring, and freedom of speech is being challenged. I am grappling with how my archival interventions can inform resistance and social change. Above the Fold takes several forms: an installation with the physical papers and a computer kiosk where visitors can search the database of images, a series of photographs of the individual newspaper towers where each image is printed to the height of the tallest pile, an artist book, as well as related videos and photographs that incorporate images from my archive.

More information:

Above The Fold: From Columbine to COVID, a conversation with  Marianne Hirsch in doc! Magazine