we’ve all got photographs that bring back happy memories and for those that are cringeworthy or upsetting, there’s always the detag or delete button, or the bin however, one us artist is asking members of the public to send him images they just can’t live with before they delete them or instead of binning them – with no explanation attached it makes for an intriguing and harrowing display chicago based jason lazarus, 39, began the project – an online archive called thtk, or too hard to keep   in 2010 and now has over 150 photographs that include a huge range of scenes with some, the reason for the owner wanting to purge it is easy to fathom for instance, the collection contains photographs of a blood soaked leg, a female with a black eye and a corpse others are more mysterious one member of the public sent in a picture taken from a veranda of a man walking across a road and another submitted an image of a wooden pole on a beach mr lazarus told mailonline that the idea for the project began when he thought about why he kept photographs that held bad memories he said: ‘i had the idea for the archive when reflecting on the charge or anxiety holding on to certain photographs brought me i started asking friends and friends of friends if they had photographs too hard to keep, and the response was powerful   the project started to grow itself ‘it often didn't need much explanation, people got it’ the artist believes the absence of descriptions won’t matter to the archive’s visitors he said: 'i respect viewers' abilities to openly engage the images in the context of their own lives and their life experiences' some of the images are very moving and mr lazarus, who has two of his own in the collection, has to suppress his emotions on occasions he said: ‘because it is my job to work on projects like these i compartmentalize for the sake of the larger growth of the project overall, the project continues to teach me and hopefully its audience, which significantly lessens any load’ for him it’s the photographs of violence and empty landscapes that stand out he said: ‘i can easily project myself into those narratives’ some photographs are just too harrowing for the senders to ever see again as a result some images are displayed face down so far, nothing has been sent in that's too disturbing to display, but mr lazarus, an adjunct assistant professor at chicago's school of the art institute, emphasizes that 'part of the project is to occasionally view harrowing images' he explained that hopefully the repository will be updated indefinitely he said: ‘i even have a fellow artist who will take over the project in case anything awful happens to me i think it's important the trust imparted to me is reciprocated to the participants’ contributors to thtk come from all over the world, from a huge variety of cultures mr lazarus said: ‘i’m hoping to reach anyone who feels the project gives them a sense of grace or greater meaning by participating’ it certainly seems to be working, with the artist adding that reaction to the project has been 'strong' the photographs have been put on public display in several cities around the world, including the museum of contemporary art in chicago, future gallery in berlin, the contemporary jewish museum in san francisco and gallery tpw in toronto some respondents had photographs that were so upsetting for them that they didn't want them displayed ever again   so these appear face down in the archive  a photograph of a newly arrived submission for the project  some of the thtk images have been displayed in public including at the museum of contemporary art in chicago 
thtk too hard to keep chicago jason lazarus
chicago based artist jason lazarus has a project called too hard to keep  it's an online archive display images members of the public have sent him  they are all photographs that they found too upsetting to keep  none of the photographs displayed in thtk carry an explanation 