"Every photograph is a certificate of presence. The photograph has no future. Not only is the Photograph never a memory, but it blocks memory, quickly becomes a counter-memory." This was written by Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida. The quotation exhibits the nature of the relationship between photography and memory. A similarity between photography and memory is each experience has occurred only once. It cannot be repeated existentially, but it can be stored or represented in photographs and memories. These representations become supplements for the actual experience.


I am using this series to discuss how we use photographs as a substitute or replacement for our actual experiences. We often think of photographs as an aid for memory. As we look through family albums or photographs of friends we think they remind us of the actual experience we had. When in fact, we are remembering the photographs of the experience. No matter how hard we may try, either through image or memory, we cannot experience that specific moment again. We only experience the images themselves.

I came across this photograph in a family album and I noticed myself "remembering" the quality of the sunlight and the movement of this photograph. When in reality, I had no memory of the actual experience, but a memory of the photograph. Using Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida as inspiration, I began to focus on this photograph, in hopes to discover what was inside the photograph. I started with the "original" and began dissecting and enlarging the photograph in hopes that I could discover something new or maybe I could begin to remember the actual experience. The more the image is enlarges the more unclear the image and memory became. This exhibits the problem of trying to find memory in photographs. The more we look, the less we see.