Recollecting

This project started as a continuation of the time capsule, documenting what is hopefully the last stage of the pandemic. In this process of moving back towards normal life, I started to wonder about how this time will be remembered. There are different meanings to give to the last year, lenses to see it through: a sense of collectivism, or total misanthropy; as life ruining, or a time for self reinvention; as exposing unequal political systems, or entrenching us deeper into them. The moments we choose to preserve fuel the narratives we create going forward.

In Recollecting, I wanted to explore this relationship between memories and the stories we make from them. With a mix of digital and film photography, I first shot in black and white, to fit the classic idea of a historical photograph. I then used the artificial intelligence Image Colorization API to create colorized versions of each image. I chose the process of the machine learning colorization to represent the process of remembering, each time tinting your perception of the past with a new tone.


interior

In the interior section of the project, I focused on the challenge of creating a personal narrative from this last year. I documented my friends and family, and the home workspace where I spent so much of my time. In hovering over each image, you get the bright, colorful, artificial restoration of these memories.

exterior

In the exterior section, I turned the camera towards symbols of how we have been affected collectively. I chose subjects that nod to our place in the pandemic: historical photos and figures, pop-up vaccine sites and protests, expressions of joy and grief. They are presented first in color, then fade to black and white on hover.
In contrasting the color and black and white versions of each composition, I wanted to convey this choice between an optimistic or pessimistic lens on each memory, neither one exactly the reality as it happened. As we move forward, are we going to look back on this time with critical hindsight, or rosy retrospection? Will the memories remain vivid, or fade away?