Slot in your Memory

[Paul Lange]

After having a chat with another forum member and having a few ideas bounced around the topic of how some photographs can conjure memories and seem to sum up an experience resoundingly. These can be images of just small things, almost visually abstract and fragmented from the who scene at that time. Maybe a particular door handle, or a stain on a wall. However, sometimes these memories are not necessarily from your own experience but rather something that seems to fit and makes sense to your past, almost like a memory you have that isn't actually your own. I doubt that aliens have been experimenting on our minds or anything like that but rather a form of cultural conditioning comes into play.

I thought about this for a while as I found this idea quite interesting. While looking through some old photographs (candidates to tryout some new filters and presets, another topic that will be posted soon) I found some images taken during a holiday to Exmoor. The weather was terrible although the scenery was beautiful but that is another story as well. Looking at the images does evoke memories, thoughts and expectations of narrative but oddly, thinking about it not the ones from the holiday. Instead I thought about various moments in my life that are not directly connected.

Some of the images have the kids in them but I don't think it is this per see but a combination of elements in the images. I have no idea if this is at all interesting to anyone else but as I am in a contemplative mood today..................

Answers on a postcard and don't forget to include your £10 entry fee.


Breakfast in the Cottage.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr



Bad Weather Stuck In.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr



Morning Assult.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr



Checking the Washing.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr



Make it like Home.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr



Kitchen Sill.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr

 

[Rob MacKillop]

These are beautiful and touching portraits, even when the girls are not in the frame. Very nice, Paul. I love them. The first is very wonderful indeed, as is the eyes closed before opening the curtains shot. Nicest series I've seen here for a while.

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Paul wonderful set. A story, atmosphere , a moment, situation, place, it could go on to encompass everything life holds at that time, with this being achieved through a visual means in a selective moment. It is the best photography, very real.

 

[Pete Askew]

Brilliant set Paul. Not only evocative they can also be interpreted as having a narrative which is probably not really there. And that ambiguity I really like.

 

[Ahmad Bhai]

Checking the Washing.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr



Make it like Home.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr

So personal yet identifiable to everyone. Childhood can in someways be very lonely & many children hide themselves away in their own world ...

 

[Paul Lange]

Thank you for the feedback guys. Photographs can mean different things to different people and yet sometimes we can all have a common recollection of what it means driven by something in our upbringing although not necessarily an actual moment we have experienced.

Does anyone have any photographs that do the same thing? I often take photographs that TBH are not particularly good technically but they have a single element that seems to connect me to something pleasurable or good in my past (experienced or not) and this make the photograph good in my eyes.

 

[Brian Moore]

Wonderful set Paul and a good subject for discussion.

Lately my mother has been sending me small packages of photos. Mostly they feature me as a small boy, and also cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. A couple of those images spring to mind as I think about iconic moments of my past. However, the picture that springs most readily to mind is one I took of Meg when she was about five or six. At that time I had this little Canon Elph digital camera. I think it had a massive 1.2 megabyte sensor, and that's what I took the image with. I'll have to try to find the image and post it.

 

[Pete Askew]

I have surprisingly few from my early years. Maybe that is partly what is behind by 'obsession' with evocation!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

When you've revisited a memory with a photograph or cine film - do you then remember the event, or the photograph of that event?

I find I can no longer remember if my early childhood memories are real or celluloid...

 

[Brian Moore]

When you've revisited a memory with a photograph or cine film - do you then remember the event, or the photograph of that event?

I find I can no longer remember if my early childhood memories are real or celluloid...

Spot on, Chris. I know of numerous events that I actually remember the photographic recordings and not the event itself.

 

[Ahmad Bhai]

When you've revisited a memory with a photograph or cine film - do you then remember the event, or the photograph of that event?

I find I can no longer remember if my early childhood memories are real or celluloid...

On Saturday my eldest Sis and i visited the house in London we lived in as children. She recalled various happenings i have no recollection of. I do remember a photo of me sitting on the outside stairs, so we took a photo of me sitting on the outside stairs. I wonder in time will it all again feel like someone else's life.