Nancy Floyd is the winner of the inaugural ICP / GOST First Photo Book Award for her series “Weathering Time.” The five shortlisted photographers are Ignacio Colo, Ciaran Dunbar, Richard Andrew Sharum, Camillo Pasquarelli and Federico Vespignani.

It’s not just the body that changes over 37 years. “As time passes, births, deaths, celebrations, and bad days come and go; all the while, the American experience evolves,” writes Floyd, who has chronicled her youth to the dawn of her old age in the extraordinary series, “Weathering Time.”

Floyd (b. 1956) has been photographing herself daily since 1982. If she fails to take a picture of herself on a particular day, she advances the film so a blank, black image is recorded on the contact sheet, thus creating a “visual calendar,” she writes in her artist statement. “Weathering Time” consists of over 25,000 vertical photographs that show, in fractions of a second, Floyd’s body from head to toe and the environment in which she stands. In almost all frames, Floyd stands casually before the camera, her gaze is straight into the lens, and a soft smile plays across her face. As Floyd confronts the camera, aging dogs are replaced by puppies, fashions evolve, cultural movements emerge, telephones with cords disappear, and the darkroom gives way to computer screens. 

While “Weathering Time” is first and foremost a personal archive, Floyd says she is “mining the archive to address issues of the female body…and loss.” The photographs, taken over 37 years, also reflect the cultural and technological changes that have occurred in her lifetime and vigorously underscore the experiences of Floyd’s generation.

This year the ICP / GOST First Book Award attracted nearly 300 entrants from 45 countries. Floyd’s book is scheduled for publication in 2020.

ICP / GOST First Photo Book Award
Nancy Floyd, Winner
For the series “Weathering Time”

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