“The image is liberated from the vaults of cinemas and archives and thrust into digital uncertainty…”
When thinking about this essay and project, I thought this quote by Hito Steyerl was a great starting point and captured the message I wanted to convey. The photo I chose was something unlikely to see the light of day. It has sat on an old computer for over 15 years and through this process- was “liberated” as I extracted it from our own family “archives” and shared it with those around me. In the essay, Steyeri discusses how the poor image is “a copy in motion” and the I tried to embrace this idea as I copied and manipulated the image. Resulting in a tattered, worn, grainy photo. It seems to have lost value, the appearance is worse in quality, details supposedly lost in the process… but to me, the value has only increased.
The value of this image increasing involves the story that was already present. The image is nostalgic and wholesome to me. But as the photo was uploaded onto that first edition MacBook computer- the story paused. Its movement came to a standstill as it was tucked away among thousands of other images of my childhood. This was however, until recently- when I rediscovered this picture and set it back on a path where it would be shared and connected with people. Bringing it more value as it connected me with those around me and my past self in ways a stored photo on an old laptop otherwise may not have. What started as physical copies of the image, printed, folded, held… eventually evolved into a file. Sent, screenshots, jpegs, scans… the image went from something telling a story of life back then- to now being an image that connects deeply to life now.
I think that when considering the relationship to the Hito Steyeri essay, this image does “serve as a reminder of it’s older self.” a reflection of what once was, and who I am now. And how as I have grown up, so has technology and ways of sharing images and memories.
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