Subject Missing

I am moving forward with this project. I have now re-photographed 10 carousels of Kodachrome slides (some are actually Anscochrome and Extachrome for you photo geeks). After I chose a certain section of the screen I set the projector on automatic and I allowed the camera to capture portions of the image without me making any further decisions. I am shooting video and these are stills from the videos. The right hand of the image is captured from one side of a transparent screen; the left is from the other side. I then synchronize the 2 videos to play the different views of the slides at the same time. It set up some interesting juxtapositions. The camera renders the color differently as the lighting situation has shifted. These images represents a storyboard. I have not figured out how I want the end result to be viewed yet. I am thinking of maybe loading it onto a digital frame (if that’s possible, I was told it is, need to research), playing with imposing nostalgic photos/technology on new ways of viewing and storing pictures. Or maybe I will project them on the same sort of translucent material I shot them on. The second option allows you to walk around them, allowing you to view them from both sides, setting up a physical relationship between you, the space, the light and the image. It makes them less picture like while brining attention to the ephemeral qualities of photographs.

Oh I haven’t spoken about the images themselves… OK. These are pictures of my family. They are fairly loaded for me on all kinds of levels (not all bad) but I was not so interested in telling you the story of my life (you would be bored). I know I’m playing with nostalgia here…..I mean, look at that wallpaper! But I am also thinking about why people take these kinds of pictures. Family snaps are generally taken to record a moment, a relationship, and holds within it a promise of holding onto something, of possessing it. Don Draper calls nostalgia “a twinge from your heart, more powerful than memory.” I know that's corny, sentimental and a bit manipulative but in a way he nailed it.

So if you look at this storyboard you will see most figures are eliminated (the intended subject is either missing or partially missing).  What is left is the space that surrounds the subject.  When I got these carousels from my family they had already been “edited”, meaning someone had totally rearranged them and you could look at one photo from 1968 and then next one would be 1974. I have no idea what this person (I think it was my father), had in mind.

As I view the extractions I feel I have allowed the pictures to tell their own story, without my stuff getting in the way. It is a story that belongs to the pictures. Perception always sees for us, it kind of gets in the way. This presentation reveals unseen things, things that are sometimes seemingly meaningless and empty and sometimes all the more disturbing for that very reason.

I also found in doing this project that I am very attached to the romance of the medium, the film, the gorgeous prints, the technological wonder of it all…so I am kind of working this out with this project. I am not sure if I will also make prints of some of these stills or just allow them to be the film. So you see, I still have many doubts and the more I work, the more questions come up. I am trying to work them through and hopefully will I survive.