¶Every object that carried a patent number was, at that moment, a declaration. Someone had solved a problem, and that solution was worth protecting. The humble patent marking is proof that a solution made it further than others. It reflects an actual innovation, a solution that became a product that others could use and evaluate. The patent marking also provides an interesting door into history, providing a tool to learn about the problems and solutions, and the inventors themselves.
¶Permanently Marked is a long-running documentary photography project of mine. I collect and photograph patent markings of various types. Some are plates that were originally attached to the patented article, others are actually part of the article. Each photograph in the collection includes one or more patent markings. For some, the marking itself is the subject, while others require a little searching to find the mark. Some are studio shots, with camera stabilization and lighting, while others are smartphone shots because, well, patent markings are literally everywhere.
¶For all photographs in the collection, detail matters. The legibility of a patent number or date, the wear around a stamp, the texture of a surface that has been handled for decades. But the images are also meant to be looked at, not just read. These objects are beautiful in the way that well-made things become beautiful over time, and the marks they carry are part of that beauty.
¶The subjects range from precision measuring instruments to kitchen implements, from industrial hardware to household goods. What they share is the mark, and a story about American ingenuity at a specific moment in time, in a specific place.
¶I came to this project from two directions at once. I've spent my career as a patent attorney, working inside the system these markings point to — reading claims, tracing priority dates, understanding what it means to reduce an invention to writing. And I've spent years with a camera, looking for the places where history leaves a physical trace. Permanently Marked is where those two things meet. The patent system is, at its core, a ledger of human problem-solving. These photographs are an attempt to discover that ledger in the physical world, and learn some of the stories behind the solutions that became products.
