Assignment Four
Introduction
Initially, I found myself disoriented.
Although I am a professional of the digital
world and an avid reader of science fiction and cyberpunk, or perhaps, for this
reason, I have never been involved in digital culture and I am certainly not
social or virtual-oriented.
In my personal sphere, the theme of identity
has an "analog" meaning, linked to memory and place. So I decided to
articulate my personal voice in relation to digital culture by affirming these
principles. I could title this work process not so much "looking for
digital identity" as "looking for identity with digital".
In the mind map that I developed, I identified
the cloning technique and photomontage as tools to tell a story of research of
my identity in the communion between the childhood place (the family home) and
the memories.
Before it all fades away
A few years ago my parents decided to leave the
big family home and move to an apartment: it is smaller but more suitable for
the ailments of their age.
My father was not happy with the decision: my
mother convinced him that the family home would remain at their disposal,
whenever they wanted to return.
The house remained as it was when my parents
lived there: the family home.
After two years my father fell ill, and then,
last November, passed away.
From that moment my mother felt that she had
lost all ties with the big house and began to insistently ask that it be
emptied and then sold or rebuilt. I think my mother wants that house not only
emptied of furniture and objects but also of memories.
For us, two sons and one daughter, it is a
difficult task, both from a practical and an emotional point of view.
Personally, I don't like to go back to that house and see that it smells of
absence every time a bit more.
As the memories evaporate, so does its
soul.
Every time I return to those rooms, I make a
mental inventory not of things but of the memories that these things
recall. I believe that when I behave like this, I'm not just looking for
memory, but that part of my identity that was born and raised in that house.
I thought of condensing my periodic visits into
some images.
Before it all fades away.
Development of the idea
It may sound bizarre to represent the pursuit
of the past using today's shooting and digital manipulation techniques.
However, the techniques I have decided to use
produce the same visual result as photographers of the analog era such as Henry
Peach Robinson in 1862, Oscar Gustave Rejlander in 1917, Diane Arbus in 1963 or
the more recent Jeff Wall in 1979 and Cornelia Hediger in 2009.
The latter artist, with her duology
"Doppelganger", tells the story of the relationship between her and
her mother and has particularly inspired me.
I tried to unify in one image, through cloning
and photomontage, the set of several images of me in the act of visiting some
rooms of the family home.
I learned to use photoshop and layer overlay
techniques as close as possible to what was used for analog photography, overlaying
the negatives.
As for the composition, I was inspired by
authors such as Wendy McMurdo and Paul M. Smith.
In some images, I was inspired by the pose and
expression between the sad and the hypnotic of Gregory Crewdson's subjects.
Images
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| Entrance |
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| Studio |
 |
| Reading Room |
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| Kitchen |
 |
| Bedroom |
 |
| Guestroom |
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| Sitting Room |
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| Fireplace |
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| Diningroom |
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| Tavern |