“A photograph is not a picture of something, but is an object about something.” 
Robert Heinecken, 1965

During our third-week guest speaker Rebecca Najdowski’s talk on alternative processes of photography – I found myself reflecting on all the old photographs I have archived away in the depths of my social media profiles, under some tackily titled folder, indicative of darker days.
Throughout my exploration of the idea that “A photograph is not a picture of something, but is an object about something”,(Heinecken, R 1965) I chose to draw on this curiosity I had towards these old images and began to researching ways in which I could reimagine and repurpose old photographs to further emphasise their significant and unifying meaning.

Within Marcus Banks and Richard Vokes’, Introduction: Anthropology, Photography and the Archive they explicitly link the creation and curation of photographic objects with the personal development of the photographer (Banks, M & Vokes, R, 2010, p.348) – within each photograph utilised within my exploration this link can be seen. The final form emphasising a past time and place, while combining with the other photographs to make a broader statement through their final composition.

Utilising photography for this creative response draws from this importance of photography within the construction of national memory, collective identities and historical imagination (Cross, K, 2017, p.1) – further the ability seeing an old photo has in triggering thought processes intrigued me so I set about finding a way in which I could frame my old memories from a particular period of my life together to create a unified media piece that pays homage to the richness of meaning behind each individual image.

My final creative response as seen in the attached image is a decoupage style collage of old photographs from before I relocated to Melbourne. I believe through this piece I was able to transfer the memories that were previously only digitally archived to a physical entity, personalised by the craft behind its construction.  Aside from my final piece physically exploring this idea of a photograph being more than just a picture – it also attributes to this idea of a photographs role in forming a “vernacular memory” (Pickering, M & Keighley, E, 2015) surrounding certain events, times, and people.

Overall I think my final piece creates a representation of how photographs are able to encapsulate a time, a moment, and the way you understand the things that were going on around at the time of the photograph.

References:
Banks, M & Vokes, R 2010, ‘Introduction: Anthropology, Photography and the Archive,’, History and Anthropology, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 337-349.

Cross, K 2017, ‘Double exposure: Memory and photography,’, Visual Studies, pp. 1-2.

Keightley, E 2006, ‘For the record: popular music and photography as technologies of memory,‘ European Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 149-165.