Within this blog I have commented quite a lot on how my technique has successfully reflected my ideas about the vulnerability and flaws of memory. My thoughts have been largely on this relationship as opposed to thinking a great deal about how the original image has been changed.
It is only now as I look at my most recent anaglypta prints that I realise how I have inadvertently recreated my family photographs as rather ghostly images. There is one particular print which I think embodies this idea well.
It is an odd sensation staring at this print and having my gaze met by my 5 year old self. I find that this feeling only arises from the anaglypta print and not the print on normal paper, or the original photograph for that matter. Perhaps I feel more nostalgic about this memory in this particular format as it emphasizes more the fact of it being in the past. I would like to give this idea more thought and do some contextual research surrounding it.
These ghostly images created in the anaglypta prints I find reminiscent of the works of Christian Boltanski and his rephotographed images.
Much like I have been doing with my prints, Boltanski’s process affects the clarity of the detail in the image. In their current state, my images have become cracked and slightly obscured whilst Boltanski’s images are pushed much further to the point where the individual within is pretty much unidentifiable.
I do not want to completely lose the image of myself in any of my prints as I want to still acknowledge how different times in my life have contributed to my identity now. In this sense, as cheesy as it sounds, every detail of my identity shown in these images lives through me today.
