19 Jul Tell me everything you don’t remember

2013
Black and white analog print

In this work I study human memory through black and white photographs of people and urban surroundings. My intention was to find the connection between the surroundings and character’s presence at present, mirroring the past self. I am pondering on an idea of our identity being equivalent to our memories.

Memory develops in the early childhood, but by the time we lose parts of it. The events we remember build our autobiographical memory. They shape our identities and make us who we are, and how we see ourselves. In traumatic memory we store moments that we have forgotten. These unconscious scars lurk behind our fears, anxieties, shame and anger.

By going through important events in our minds, we give them a meaning. And the more we think over the memory, the more it changes… Our beliefs, ecstasies, depressions, cravings, dreams, addictions, and behaviors, are all affected by our experiences and memories of them.

Even the photographs themselves are memories of past events. How does the moment captured exist after I press the release button? Or does it?