Intimate Past & Present Light: Using Photography to Investigate Self-Defining Memories
Date
2017
Authors
England, Odette Sherie
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Abstract
This practice-led research project investigates the relationship
between autobiographical memory and photography.
My research question comprises two parts. Firstly, how can I
mediate the virtual space between myself, as both the maker and
as the subject of my practice, to the viewer? Rather than
communicating autobiographical specificity, how to emphasise the
malleability of personal memories, using the photographic object
as metaphor, so that a viewer may experience some shared
nostalgia for the ‘lost’ past. Secondly, to what extent can
the separation of self occur, from being ‘fixed’ in a
snapshot and ‘semi-fixed’ in memory to being ‘present’ in
the studio?
I initiated this project from my preoccupation with self-defining
memories of intimate relationships. I began with my ‘self’.
These memories provided a means of confronting my research
objective: using photography to manipulate them.
This research reflects the need to address through photography
the plasticity and transferability of memory’s hold on the
present. To do this, I reworked personal snapshots and memories
through material and sensory encounter. To help make way for a
viewer’s bond to form with my work, I needed to dissolve and
rework my bond with personal snapshots and memories. This was key
to bridging the intangible space of my past. I produced several
series of photographs, contextualised by Endel Tulving’s
hypothesis of chronesthesia (mental time travel) and Henri
Bergson’s theory of recollection recovery.
Through conception and execution of reworked photographs, I
occupied a distinctive space as a maker/subject. This space,
which I have termed prepositional space, allowed me to
‘unfix’ self from snapshots and memories to be present in the
studio. This makes way for a viewer’s bond to form. I argue
that prepositional space is a significant new methodology for
artists and viewers to assess their encounter with such
photographs.
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Keywords
photography, photographs, autobiographical memory, snapshots, self, relationships, self-defining memories, encounter, Endel Tulving, Henri Bergson, chronesthesia, recollection, reminiscence bump, prepositional space, lumen prints, chlorophyll prints
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