6102: Contemporary and Historical Context
Identifying how personal photographs influenced Lorena Guillen Vaschetti’s ‘Historia, Memoria, y Silencios’ and ‘Unopened’?
Remembering Echoes
As humans we reminisce sentimentally about things in our lives that have gone this can be triggered by familiar senses, photographs provoke emotions and are a catalyst for memories. When we look at old family photographs we are greeted with faces of the past, some we recognise and some we do not, but they all spark some kind of memory. Lorena Guillen Vaschetti’s collection Historia, Memoria, y Silencios captures her personal family photographs, the artist’s book is made up of two sections, one showing beautiful re-photographed found family images that have been subtly distorted to blur the personas in the photographs. The collection titled ‘Unopened’ a series of documentation type photographs of objects that consist of 35mm slide packages, scraps of paper and undeveloped film. With no titles or descriptions, it is up to the viewer to unravel the mysteries this artwork encloses and as humans we try and find similarities in all our lives. Her history is captured in exposed fragments in the form of old photographs, slide bundles and scraps of paper that she has re-photographed and adjusted. She did this to express the unknown and warped history of her family, most families reminisce about their family memories, Vaschetti’s didn’t. The photographs she uses in her artwork are the equivalent of partial stories communicated. This essay analysis’s how personal photographs and attached memories are used in her work and how they share relationships and differences to writings on memory. These include writings from psychiatrist Douwe Draasima, philosopher Henri Bergson, writer Siegfried Kracauer and a web article. Throughout this essay I will compare and contrast elements of Lorena’s two sections of work with these references to identify what it is about personal memories Lorena and viewers find so thought-provoking.
Comparable to ‘The Nostalgia Factory’ by Douwe Draasima, memories can be altered by time and surrounding people, the re-photographed images in Lorena’s artwork. Lorena’s mother altered her daughter’s recollection of her family and Lorena herself altered them further by distorting the re-photographed images, so they were almost ‘dream-like’ and some family members faces almost unidentifiable. In the preface Drassima’s text there is a discussion with a 112-year-old lady reminiscing her earliest memory of her grandmother knitting, but her question was if the memory was real or was the lady told this story so many times that she created a disjointed recollection, ‘could it be that as a child she was once told that her granny used to get her to wind yarn into a ball, and the story then transformed itself into a memory.’ This is how I imagine Lorena’s work started to form. How do our brains depict what we remember and what others suggest we remember? We look at photographs of our past and our memories are heavily stimulated by our present relatives. Our memories come back to us when our senses are stimulated by the familiar, but in this case was it the original memory being remembered or the memory of the story.
Draasima goes on to suggest that past memories become a person’s latest memory when remembered. ‘whether hers or someone else’s, does she perhaps record it afresh every time, so that her earliest memory is really no older than the last time she thought it?’ Our brains are programmed to create an updated version of a recollection from our lives and that becomes a brand-new retention, ‘How different is my idea of the past from how the past actually was?’Vaschetti, L. G. (2011) Historia, Memoria, y Silencios: Schilt. Lorena’s inspiration was of family members that she didn’t know, the only stories would have been told by her mother, who’s opinion would sculpt Lorena. By what we are told at a young age stays with us and actions speak much louder than words, Lorena’s mother attempted to destroy all of her photographic slides to protect her daughter from her family’s past. This would imprint Lorena’s memories with new emotions about who her relatives were, that are illustrated to the viewer to visualise. The reminiscence effect is the unprompted reoccurrence of old memories, this is mentioned throughout ‘The Nostalgia Factory’. The disposing of the photographs by Lorena’s mother, might well have been triggered by the reminiscence effect, older generations in our family’s rely more on their earlier memories than looking to the future. So, while Lorena understandably has an interest in her family history and her work displays a curiosity, her mother would much rather forget. People over the age of fifty are more likely to get nostalgic than a younger person, ‘The boundary between memories and photographs begins to blur’Draasima, D. (2013) The Nostalgia Factory p.96. The individual here is talking about how looking at certain photographs from his past is too painful, they are locked in a draw because he would never throw them away. This shows comparison to Lorena’s work in how as humans our memories can function and trigger powerful emotions. The ‘blurring’ physically links to Lorena’s work also, the ingenious use of shallow depth of field in the first section of her book adds another element of concealment to her work almost like doctoring a piece of text. When members of Lorena’s family initially produced the used, analogue photographs they were unspoiled, they caught a memory that at that time was precious to someone. These documented memories would be remembered by anyone who knew the people in the images or was told about the day it was taken, ‘Spontaneous recollection is perfect from the outset; time can add nothing to its image without disfiguring it; it retains in memory its place and date’H, Bergson, (1896). Photographs are a physical representation of memories, and comparable to our memory image, photographs deteriorate over time too so would one determine the other? If a photo was damaged does that affect our remembrance of it? Maybe with age it does, looking at old family photos can be nostalgic and when there is no image to look at, our memory would be triggered by other things such as places and smells. The familiar faces in the photographs would fade a little more with every recollection and without the photos to stimulate the memory image as the person aged the relative’s faces would disappear. By removing the original family snapshots from sight Lorena’s mother went through stage one of trying to forget, has Lorena has displayed this in her work? The fading of the faces and places in her first collection of images could in fact represent how Lorena portrays her mother’s personal memories that are washed-out by time. This piece in particular show a photograph what looks to be a beach scene, you can tell by the amount of light that it is heavily over exposed Lorena has altered the analogue image further by digitally manipulating it. It looks like she has used the diorama effect to alter the photograph, this effect is usually used to turn a life size photograph into a miniaturised version through changing your perspective. Usually these types of image are taken from a high angle, but as Lorena was working with found photographs, she could not. She would have created this effect by either using a tilt shift lens to ensure the shallow depth of field or influenced it through software later. The top and bottom sections of the image are the only parts blurred, though I don’t think she intended to make the image miniaturised the effect has added something to the original photograph by taking something away. This could symbolise how Lorena’s mother is better forgetting her family’s past to continue blissfully living her life of today.
Fig. 1 Lorena Guillen Vaschetti, (2011), ‘Historia, Memoria y Silencios’, [Archival ink on cotton paper], Sizes are 145 x 105 cm and 15 x 10cm
The title, which translates to ‘History, Memory and Silences’ there is a mystery of remembrance, what does Lorena mean by ‘silence’? Anyone who explores her work would see something different which is the beauty of it, was it silence of her mother for many years or of her family that has past, leaving only a few loose 35mm slides at the bottom of a box. Silence is defined as ‘the complete absence of sound’, (2018) photographs are silent, but as the famous proverb states ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’, (Anonymous, ND.) Every photograph in the collection communicates something different and while the detail in the pictures are faded from the alteration of the depth of field they still resonate.
‘My interest lies in its inaccessible content, which have been silenced by passing of time or that would vanish if revealed’ Vaschetti, L. G. (2011). In a way she has silenced parts of her past, by choosing to photograph small collections of slides and not at all be tempted to explore them she has halted her own opinion and therefore understanding towards the history of her family.
She has defined them as ‘inaccessible content’ to anyone else these pieces would be very physically accessible, they are right there to be looked at but to Lorena they are emotionally inaccessible, she is content with the mystery of her bygone relations and in doing this she respectfully continues with her mother’s wished to leave her past behind and look to the future. She has photographed them in such a way that they look like found artefacts from an archive. The objects are contrasted on the black background, all the slight details can be seen and there are no background distractions from the small, unusual items. The pieces definitely create an intriguing curiosity, in this particular piece the dark background isolates the slides, drawing your attention towards them. This amplifies the fact that there were very few salvaged photographic pieces in Lorena’s assemblage, this instils a message of almost personifying the 35mm slides with a feeling of loneliness. Perhaps this is representing Lorena’s now small family in some way.
Fig. 2 Lorena Guillen Vaschetti, (2011), ‘Unopened’, [Archival ink on cotton paper], 40x40cm
It is clear that although Lorena has no interest in opening the slide packages, she has an abundant interest in the slides whether it be as objects or their content. Siegfried Kracauer shares ‘No matter which scenes an individual remembers, they all mean something relevant to that person, though he or she might not know what they mean.’ Kracauer, S. (1927)Photography c. 3, p. 50. Here Kracauer displays how although photography is a tool to capture snapshots from life, they display a place or persons appearance but not the details our minds can remember. We memorise things that are individually meaningful, the way we felt at the time always defines how that memory echoes through our life and how we share that memory with others. These slides mean something to Lorena otherwise she would not have used them to create her artwork. What they mean however is different and nobody, but the artist can help define that. Photographs compress a single second of life into an image and that image contains a lot of background noise that most of the time doesn’t interest an inexpert photographer, because he or she is generally focused on the images main subject. Memories don’t work in this way, our mind filters out the background noise and retains the important segments like faces, emotions and senses. Lorena’s work congers up the emotions of viewers with her work but also creates a sense of nostalgia within their own history and personal memories. Even if Lorena’s history is unknown the traditional quality and photographic style of her work provokes others to feel a curious connection.
Lorena states ‘Between silences, secrets and oblivions there are many stories and with them we can build and rebuild our own, and with it, our identities.’ Vaschetti, L. G. (2011) Oblivion is a word that creates a sense of unconsciousness, I believe here Lorena is implying that she was completely unaware to sections of her family’s story and by being this unaware it protected her innocence. Maybe by not opening the slide assortments she is shielding herself still, even by altering the depth of field in the re-photographed pieces she has created an edited, blurred barrier between her and the history. Lorena saw a potential in her mother’s slides, that they could be something more than old photographs of unknown faces. She saw a meaning behind them just as objects and in doing this she distanced herself from them and looked at them as artists materials and not as inherited photographs. Lorena’s mother is the oldest surviving person in her family and therefore the one with the old memories from the generations. The truth of her past lies within her memory image, they would display accounts of her past and although patched with personal opinions would show insight. In PhotographySiegfried Kracauer writes ‘The meaning of memory image is linked to their truth content...’ he goes on to explain how our memories capture our views and emotions on situations, ‘All memory images are bound to be reduced to this type of image, which may rightly be called the last image, since it alone preserves the unforgettable. The last image of a person is that person’s actual history.’ Kracauer, S. (1927) Photography c. 3. p.51. He speaks of these images as if they were objects which is exactly how Lorena sees them as she probably has little memory of when they were taken, unlike her mother who I imagine sees the physical photographs and unknowingly triggers her memory images. ‘The last image’ sounds so definite and finalised, Lorena’s few photographs are the last of their kind, they will only give a certain amount of history, the rest is filled in by gaps. Time deteriorates memories because our mind struggles to piece together elements but emotions towards a thought are kept within the memory image. The idea that our recollections shape our past is extraordinary even more how our future can be depicted from it. Lorena’s inquisitiveness towards ‘inaccessible content’ primarily her own has shaped her future in the contemporary art world as well as given her memory image pieces of insight into her past.
Kracauer writes how time damaged photographs can still hold memories for the person reminiscing, although can transform the thoughts of relatives, ‘the now darkened appearance has so little in common with the traits still remembered that the grandchildren submit in amazement to their imperative of encountering in the photograph their fragmentally recorded ancestor.’ Kracauer, S. (1927) Photography c. 2. p.48. Here Kracauer illustrates a lady showing her grandchildren a childhood photograph, to the lady the photographs show distant retentions, but the children cannot grasp who the person is, to them the snapshot depicts an unknown time which would be impossible to recollect. Again, this shows similarities to Lorena’s relationship with her mother and family history, the physical distortion of the photograph from Kracauer’s text was created by time itself where Lorena’s were manipulated. However, some of her pieces from her work titled ‘Unopened’ haven’t been developed. Depending on the condition, storage and age of these films if developed they could show distortions from coloured marking and shapes where the photographic emulsion has degraded, they could be in great condition and not looked aged at all or they could not have any image at all due to being exposed to light. All these possibilities add more the more unidentified mystery to her work.
The re-photographed works of Lorena would trigger all sorts of memories from her family’s past but would the photographed objects ‘Unopened’? these Scraps of paper and undeveloped films are vessels full off possible recollections, items like the film canisters are also sentimental and tactile as they represent a time period of the sixties or seventies. The objects themselves resonate with people. Anyone who has vintage family photo albums, photo pouches full of your photographs from holidays or rolls of unused film can relate and appreciate these objects as items of history, before digital took over the contemporary art and photography world. Artist Grayson Perry’s childhood communicates a comparable likeness to Lorena’s, ‘When I was about five, my mother made a bonfire in the back garden and burned a suitcase full of family photos taken by my father. . . Family snaps are somehow celebratory of the good times so there was little motivation to record our lives.’ Perry, G. (2013). This article reveals interviews with multiple artists and writers about how photography has influenced their lives and careers, Grayson Perry says that his photography work today is mainly to document his art practice, however as a child no one in his home owned a camera, and once his father who was a photographer left home, there are almost no childhood photographs of him. In the above quote he implies that none of his live was recorded through images after his father left, and like Lorena looking back through family albums wasn’t a luxury either of them could afford. Although both artists had similar experiences with early photography and a parental figure who had a part in physically destroying photographs their works couldn’t be more different. While Lorena tried to hold on to her family photographs, Grayson did not he started to experiment and document his practice as soon as he got to art college. Both artists work relies heavily on using photography today and had an impact on how they look at photographs. They both look at analogue photographs as an affectionate and treasured item, that have the possibility in becoming something more. ‘Some of my most precious and most naff are the earliest images of myself in women’s clothes’ Perry, G. (2013). Grayson is saying how some photographs mean a lot to him, yet they aren’t significant to anyone else. Lorena’s re-photographed family history became something else when she started using them as artistic media, they became something intriguing and had less of a connection to her family and difficult past. Lorena took something downcast and created something picturesque, comparable to Grayson who’s wasn’t able to learn photography skills from his father to then create excellent documented photographic artwork with limited technical photography skill.
The same article interviewed theatre director Katie Mitchell, who’s origins of photography are in much contrast with Lorena’s, ‘These tiny images, sometimes only 3in x 1in, with their curled edges, are the only way of touching people in my past. Like many people, my family was broken up by time, events, place and so on, and looking at these is a way of putting the pieces of my past together, like a jigsaw.’ Mitchell, K. (2013). Similar to Grayson, Katie treasures her analogue photographs, but where Grayson didn’t achieve this until his late teens Katie’s family environment was very different at a young age. The way Katie talks about her family’s documentation is moving, she has been bought up watching slide shows and rummaging through many boxes of family photographs, this is completely Juxtaposed to Lorena’s childhood. Photography, especially the tactile nature of analogue photography or the lack of it can depict how you document your own life when you’re an adult, Katie explains how she today documents her life and her children’s lives similarly to how her parents did with her, but she misses the hands on, grainy effect and nostalgic quality of analogue photographs. Today’s photographs are saved as JPEGs and camera rolls on screens, we can take as many as we want and can see them instantly, we’ve lost the warmth and emotion behind analogue images. Maybe this is why viewers are so transfixed with Lorena’s work, it doesn’t just show personal photographs it reminds us of a time that once was, a time when taking a photograph was something you did as a family not something that isolated you to looking at a screen uploading them. Some may argue that digitising images has given us the opportunity to share more with a wider audience, and it has but we as humans have lost a characteristic that many people miss but the new era won’t. Our generation is one of the last that will remember disposable cameras on school trips and leather photo albums and work like Lorena’s will eventually appear even more like documented artefacts and relics in a museum which will spark a bigger catalyst of curiosity into the items that possibly our great-great grandparents used and a realisation into how far we as humans have come with documenting our memories and emotions.
This dissertation was produced to analyse how and why Lorena Guillen Vaschetti used her own personal family photographs in her most recent art practice. ‘Historia, Memoria, y Silencios’ and ‘Unopened’ bring mystery and nostalgia to contemporary art, her work has proven that analogue and digital photography can work hand in hand, also that there is still a place in the art industry for analogue photography. Exploring and investigating the works of Lorena has helped build and inspire my own art practice as well as opened my eyes to how using personal photographs, objects and memories can stimulate new and exciting ideas.
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Fig. 1 Lorena Guillen Vaschetti, (2011), ‘Historia, Memoria y Silencios’, [Archival ink on cotton paper], Sizes are 145 x 105 cm and 15 x 10cm. Available at:http://www.lorenaguillenvaschetti.com/#/iii/ [Accessed 6th November 2018]
Fig. 2 Lorena Guillen Vaschetti, (2011), ‘Unopened’, 40x40 cm. Available at:http://www.lorenaguillenvaschetti.com/#/053204149098/ [Accessed 6th November 2018]
Vaschetti, L. G. (2011) Historia, Memoria, y Silencios: Schilt.
Kathrynn-Mae Gilbert S16131170
Kathrynn-Mae Gilbert S16131170
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