TAKEN FROM MEMORY (2020 & ongoing)

What remains of a photograph when it can no longer be seen or the conscious memory of that which it depicts is lost?

Taken From Memory. These Chlorophyll and Anthotype prints are part of an ongoing body of research and practice evolving from the question: what remains of a photograph when it can no longer be seen or the conscious memory of that which it depicts is lost? I’m also attempting to create work with materiality that embodies the interplay of light and biochemistry during the creation of a visual memory: light passing through the eye, into the brain, triggering signals by which the brain interprets what is seen, simultaneously storing a “mind’s eye” version that will be “remodelled” each time it is recalled. Chlorophyll and Anthotype printing require interception and engagement with pigment changes that occur during photosynthesis: the process by which plants capture light. Additionally, to make this work, I’m employing the “light of other days” captured by more conventional photographic methods, from my family collection but of unknown or forgotten provenance. Most depict people or places yet of especial interest to me are the ones only featuring light leaks. Negatives, exposed 35mm or Brownie camera film, coloured slides by Kodak, Ilford and Agfacolor, or Viewmaster reels are placed on top of Nasturtium leaves, inside contact frames, and left in my garden or greenhouse for several days until the sun has bleached images into the leaves. Thus, reliquaries of light captured in the past are reused to recapture light in the present, bringing together two moments in time by means of two light capturing processes. The prints are deliberately left unfixed so that they will continue to fade and disintegrate. The images upon them will be “taken from memory” for a second time, eventually becoming dust that I’ll blend with other plant matter to produce Anthotypes from a second set of unidentifiable images. The process may be repeated many times, each iteration contributing to an accreted document comprising bonded light and matter, photograph, inside photograph, inside photograph.