Purcell, Rosamond Wolff. A Matter of Time by Rosamond Wolff Purcell.

David R. Godine, 1975. Preface by Rosamond Wolff Purcell. Wraps, 72 pages, first edition. Contemporary Photographers Series: 1. Intimate, moody black-and-white photographs of people, old cars, dolls, sculpture and other objects. Includes some double exposures (or printing with sandwiched negatives). Purcell's first monograph. Fine in wraps with custom-made 4-mil polyester jacket. 

Rosamond Wolff Purcell (b. 1942) is an American photographer, author, and installation artist celebrated for her haunting visual studies at the intersection of natural history, science, and fine art. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and educated at Boston University, Purcell initially worked in Polaroid film before developing a signature aesthetic focused on decay, metamorphosis, and forgotten artifacts. Over a multi-decade career, she gained widespread recognition for photographing obscure medical specimens, natural history collections, and taxidermy in museum archives worldwide, as well as documenting decades of weathered objects found in a Maine junkyard—a project detailed in her acclaimed 2003 book Owls Head: On the Nature of Lost Things. In addition to authoring several books in collaboration with figures like paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and magician Ricky Jay, Purcell famously created a physical re-creation of the 17th-century cabinet of curiosities of Ole Worm. Her work—which was featured in the 2016 documentary An Art That Nature Makes and a major career retrospective, Nature Stands Aside, at the Addison Gallery of American Art—continues to challenge traditional boundaries between beauty and anomaly.

A Matter of Time (published by David R. Godine in 1975) is the landmark debut monograph by acclaimed American photographer Rosamond Wolff Purcell. The book introduces her pioneering work with large-format Polaroid film, establishing her reputation for creating haunting, psychologically complex portraits and still lifes that challenge the boundaries of reality.

Core Themes & Artistic Insights

1. The Alchemy of Polaroid Film

The volume is celebrated for its innovative, fine-art application of instantaneous film technology. At a time when Polaroid was largely dismissed as a casual or purely commercial medium, Purcell utilized its unique chemical properties, instantaneous development feedback, and distinct tonal palette to craft highly deliberate, atmospheric works of art.

2. Multi-Layered Optical Illusions

The defining aesthetic of the images in the book is their complex, multi-dimensional appearance. Operating entirely in-camera without darkroom manipulation, Purcell constructed intricate visual arrangements by shooting through antique window glass, utilizing mirrors, or physically overlapping her subjects with highly reflective or translucent surfaces to create transparent, dreamlike composites.

3. The Intersect of Memory, Fluidity, and Decay

The thematic focus of the monograph centers on the ephemeral nature of time, identity, and the human form. Purcell juxtaposes human subjects with changing light patterns, shadows, and weathered organic materials, transforming traditional portraiture into an exploration of psychological interiors, memory, and the inevitable process of transience.

A Matter of Time served as the vital foundation for Purcell's celebrated career exploring the intersections of art, science, and history. By transforming everyday objects and human forms into ethereal, multi-layered visual puzzles, the publication proved the serious artistic capabilities of instantaneous film and established her unique, surrealist vision within late-twentieth-century photography.