Sans a White Picket Fence

This project is made up of 16 photographs that have been printed with FP100C Fuji Instant Film and transferred to a new paper surface. The 16 photographs were used to comprise a photography sculpture that was made with the intent to comment on what it is like to comprehend a stable childhood without ever having had the experience. It is about the transfer of memories from one person to another through narratives and shows how the transfer of narrative through multiple parties causes a narration to take on a rough approximation of the original story.

The outer loop displays photographs of places from my fiancé’s childhood memories. He grew up with a stable childhood, living in the same town his whole life and experiencing childhood in a home with traditional parents living the ‘American Dream.’ Prints on the outer loop are made from Fuji transfers onto Arches 88 printmaking paper, with a cobalt blue watercolor glaze.  This paper gives a smoother finish to the transfer representing the locations as tangible places I can visit.

The inner loop displays self-portraits of myself from the location from which I took the photographs of each location. These self-portraits are also Fuji transfers with a cobalt blue watercolor glaze, but they are instead printed on Arches Platine print making paper. The texture of this paper gives the images a rougher texture creating a feeling that I am disappearing, out of place, and ghostlike in these spaces because I can never actually experience the feelings or understand the experiences my fiancé remembers from his memories. These images are used to reveal how my fiancé’s childhood lifestyle is in contrast to my chaotic experiences with youth and family.

As my self-portraits are placed in the center of the outer loop it creates a relationship between the two sets of images.  Both loops of images are set up on ‘Lazy Susan’ turntable hinges, allowing the loops to spin or be manipulated by the viewer. The relationships created between images as they are moved by the viewer not only shows how confusing it is to understand an experience never had, but also shows how narratives become malleable.  Once a memory is placed in the hands of anyone who did not experience it firsthand a narrative is created and takes on a life of its own.

Nominated for Best Experimental Photography in 2011 Visions Festival at American University.

Note: All single images shown here are shown before the cobalt blue water color glaze was applied.