screen memories 

Sigmund Freud called “screen memories“ a particular kind of childhood memories. He distinguished between apparently indifferent and circumstantial childhood memories, and those which he identified as striking, important and emotionally relevant. In this process, the latter are veiled by those less significant memories, and according to Freud, this effect can be attributed to a resistance in the conscious reproduction of memories. This can lead to mistakes and falsification of those recalls. 

For this project I dealt with this idea and tried to find out to which extent photography can help creating, altering or falsifying memory itself. In the series I narrate a personal conflict with my father’s absence. Our relationship ended when I was 12 years old, and some time ago I realised there aren’t any pictures left from our time together. My memories of him were kind of blurred, and the fact that I couldn’t revive those shared moments through images, made it easier for those recalls to vanish and be forgotten. 

Through my research, different questions about the relationship between photography and memories came out, like what happens to those memories that were not kept in pictures?; what happens when we look at a picture depicting someone who at this present time became almost a total stranger?; or can we bring back – or even change – our own feelings towards an absent person through photographs? Following this approach, I staged the memories I still have from my father in new photographs , I staged photographs I remember there was once from him or from moments with him, and I also created photographs with false memories along the way, in an attempt to see if my own memories could be refreshed or altered, as if I were provoking my own “screen memories” intentionally. I played with the colours and the texture of analog photography that was usual when I was a child. For that purpose, I shooted in film in 35 mm and experimented with the materiality of photography.

This project is being exhibited till the 16th of October at #Raum für Drastische Maßnahmen part of the #European Month of Photography Berlin 2016.

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Verónica Losantos

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