I Love

2003. Single-channel video, 7:40 mins

Ben Judd filmed I Love surreptitiously at an amateur photography club in London. The voiceover that Judd has added describes an idea of separateness and connectedness. By observing small movements, such as a man scratching his nose or nodding, and by saying that he loves the way in which he does this, Judd implies the intimacy of a personal history with the men, evoking a feeling of loss. The words come before the action, implying a familiarity and compounding the feeling of a delusion of intimacy. Although sometimes filmed from a distance, Judd also directly locates himself within the subject he is filming, and is both a part of the activity of observing and is also separate from it, often becoming a subject of suspicion.