As my work becomes increasingly about deterioration in line with how remembering can be flawed, I have begun to take this further and consider complete absence of memories.
From the start of my project, from when I presented my project proposal, I was already interested in how the family photo album is set out and what images were included. What I found even more interesting, however, were the blank spaces where photos should have been. I felt that these empty spaces said more about the realities of family life than the actual photos which endeavour to depict it.
What I, therefore, decided to do was document these empty spaces through photography. At first I attempted to capture only the blank space and not the surrounding environment. After taking a few photographs, however, I found that it was much more interesting to give the viewer a better idea of the context of this space, giving little hints of other photographs that brought a greater sense of intrigue to the image.
In one particular album (one of the older ones) the photographs were concealed within square plastic pouches. At first this format seemed a bit of a barrier in my documenting of the empty spaces as I was able to just see the photograph from the next page through the plastic. When lifting the page and holding it at an angle, however, I was able to achieve an image which acknowledged the empty plastic pouches whilst at the same time presenting a blurred representation of photographs on the previous page. I find this particular photograph very visually pleasing due to its intriguing composition.
There is something quite poetic about creating photographs out of the empty spaces where photographs should already reside. I believe what this does is to question both the use of the family album and photography itself. I find the empty spaces in the album quite disconcerting. It is as though the memory has been lost and all that remains is a blank space where it used to be.
I guess most people would not give a second thought to this gap as they are too busy concerning themselves with the images still within the album. I suppose it is the same with memory too. We forget things from the past every day but our mind is too preoccupied with everything else to notice.
