I meant to link to the original page, http://crsvenningsen.com/portfolio_AmGoth.html.

Its a little different from the Rachel Harrison work in that there is 1 unique object that serves as an index for all reproductions of American Gothic. We are used to the variation that is tied into reproduction, but to me the Harrison piece has more to do with the agreement that the customer enters into with the photolabs. There is an absence of a standard, as Hainley writes, but the user has to be willing to accept what ever standard exists for the particular service that is outputting the reproduction.

“An example of how cogently [Rachel] Harrison presents some of these concerns is seen in 5x7s (A&R Quality Photo…), 1996, for which the artist had the same negative of a[n] anthill developed at ten stores or labs, requesting an identical process and picture size each time. Each photo came back looking different, in a comically variegated range of hues, and one of the developed images was larger than the requested five-by-seven. Framed together they provide a witty commentary on the medium, on the production and reception of sameness, on the absence of a standard, even of standardization. Harrison opens up the potential of the situation to attempt to respond to the demands of a culture of too much. I don’t think the flux or absence is supposed to be deplorable or depressing.” (Bruce Hainley)