“On Route” is an exhibition of photographs I took while working in the post office over a two-year period.  The photos in this collection share that single characteristic, but beyond that do not have obvious connections to each other or the viewer.  Connections are to be made by the viewer, the idea being that each viewing leaves one with new questions, and maybe new insights.  By leaving a lot of interpretation to the viewer, “On Route” avoids documentation and does not present a narrative.  It is not like the “before” and “after” photos in a museum exhibit or the “artist's depiction” of one of Saturn's moons in a scientific article included to explain something.  While still being tied to the reality that these photos were taken while delivering mail, the photos do not effectively tell a specific story, so the goal is that the viewer is left asking “What is the story?”

 

While delivering mail, commuting to work, or taking a break, I always had a small camera with me, and would end up taking thousands of 35mm black and white pictures.  After leaving the post office, I spent more than a year developing and digitizing the photos, narrowing down the collection to the 28 images that, once printed in a darkroom, would become “On Route”

 

My primary influences for this work were pictures I had seen by my friend and photographer Sam Milianta, as well as others by Robert Frank and Josef Koudelka.  These photographers helped me realize that interesting, moving, and simply bizarre photos are taken in any setting, and seemingly of almost any subject.  This realization was crucial for maintaining my ongoing interest and hope that there were good photos lying in wait during my everyday routine in suburban Utah.  I would never have taken a picture like the one of the three children watching me deliver mail if I had not had that realization or known to watch for a surprising moment during an unextraordinary workday.  And it is this type of picture that is less explanation/documentation, and more a question.  “What are these kids doing, what was the photographer doing,” that, along with all the indescribable questions and feelings that an image of a face gives us make this the kind of photo that tries to achieve the goal of “On Route.”  We have the idea that it might be in part about many things: work, mail, the post office, suburbia, etc. but also, we ask “what's the story?”

 

Through candid photography taken of unprepared subjects (whether it be people, dogs, landscapes, or junk) "On Route" depicts things we all know, normal parts of life, but all of them up for interpretation, and held together by only one specific theme, almost an excuse for belonging together: photos taken while delivering mail in Utah in 2021 and 2022.

 

Simon Zivny is a photographer based in Salt Lake City. Initially having studied and practiced other artistic mediums (music composition, painting, printmaking, and sculpture) in his home of Portland, Oregon, Zivny had only dabbled in photography before carrying a camera on his 2,650 mile walk from Mexico to Canada. The resulting photo journal from that trip (The Pacific Crest Trail in Pix; 2017: The Year of Fire and Ice) began what would become an obsession; now, he always has a camera with him.

 

His work is primarily street photography, which is a category of photography involved in unmediated encounters and everyday life.  As photography becomes increasingly more posed and contrived in the era of social media, Zivny’s photographs of otherwise normal and unremarkable subjects bring a vivid and unique perspective to daily life.  He has described his process broadly as a game whose goal is to portray uncurated subjects – usually people – in a way that captures them truly as they are.

 

Zivny’s photography has been featured in publications, showings, and projects by organizations such as The Washington Post, Voyage Utah Magazine, Utah Division of Arts & Museums, Acme Camera Company, and WorthlessStudios NYC.