The works in Past:Present reveal what curator Esther Hladik describes as photography's capacity to "speak a new language" in the moment of its disruption. Pieces like A Fragment of Lost Time I present faded cityscapes with emulsion layers breaking open like tectonic plates, while Past Present Prism transforms Alpine panoramas into wounded surfaces marked by burn blisters. These interventions embody what Settle calls "vision-force"—a direct, embodied engagement with photographicmateriality that bypasses conventional representation.

Drawing on François Laruelle's concept of "non-photography"—which treats photography not as representation but as thought-practice existing immanently within the Real—Settle's images, with their jagged edges and smooth, glacial surfaces, initially appear as nonrepresentational paintings. Only closer examination reveals their photographic origins: color transparencies whose emulsion layers havebeen carved and striated, exposing glimpses of the color spectrum and creating what theoristsdescribe as "temporal chronotopes" where past and present collide.

This approach positions Settle as processor rather than conventional photographer, embodying a"performative stance" that reclaims agency from the photographic apparatus. His practice operates asconscious resistance to digital image culture's immateriality, positioning analog manipulation as acritical return to photography's material roots while opening space for latent possibilities to emergethrough accumulated temporal layers.

Past:Present reveals how the material of memory, in the moment of its disruption, speaks more than itoriginally contained—functioning as both archaeological excavation and future-oriented speculation. All works are analog in origin. Finished works are C-Prints on Fujiflex II paper mounted on aluminum, created from color transparencies that are scanned but never digitally manipulated.