The photographs that are too upsetting to keep: Chicago artist Jason Lazarus's intriguing collection of images that members of the public found too difficult to hang on to... but the dark secret of each one remains untold

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The photographs that are too upsetting to keep: Artist collects images that people don't want - but the dark secret of each remains untold
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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 T.H.T.K carry an explanation

Published: 04:59 EST, 20 March 2015 | Updated: 10:19 EST, 20 March 2015

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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 T.H.T.K, 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.’

Jason Lazarus explains his 'Too Hard To Keep' project

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.

Mr Lazarus, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Chicago's School of the Art Institute, 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 T.H.T.K come from all over the world, from a huge variety of cultures.

Mr Lazarus added: ‘I’m hoping to reach anyone who feels the project gives them a sense of grace or greater meaning by participating.’

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