Abstract
Photography shapes us as we enter into its history backwards. The intention of making photographs historicises the now. It is a process that transitions one to ‘look back’ as a way forward, sharing a co-presence with its past state. Memory implicates most of what we do in our waking lives and works as a relationship, and in direct relation to photography. Knowing exists when something is learned, imagination, however, is boundless. Imaginative seeing, imaginative hearing, imaginative knowing, and in effect imaginative memory. Yet, to know can be imaginative seeing because of the role memory plays. Photography has me believe that memory is a collection of ourselves as trace since the photograph is the only ‘fixed’ image amongst our imaginations, not necessarily a recurring one. The photograph contests our notions of meaning, spurring imagination and building images as textual dialogue that we read with, as opposed to ‘read into’. We age with photographs, we speak with photographs, we resonate with photographs, we respond with photographs, we exist with photographs, we spend time with photographs, we write with photographs. We exist in photographs, and there exists a life with photographs, we do not however, enter into photographs. The purpose of this paper addresses how memory tells us something about how we understand anything, and how the photographic encounter is the method that makes us understand everything about how we think of something.
Presenters
Enrico ScoteceLecturer, Photomedia (Design/ Visual Communication/ and Photojournalism), Western Sydney University, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Perception, Photography, Text, Memory, Imagination
