Family album

Dimensions: 16cm x 16cm
Thermal transfer screen print and stencil on aluminium
Unique

Permanence and timelessness are reflected in ‘Family album’ in which we are confronted by the frozen attention of a photographed group of children. They stare out, some with resignation, some anticipation and encourage the viewer to look into their imagined lives, to wonder whether their hopes were realised or fears unfounded. In turn, it leads to our own appraisal of our place in time.

Old photographs of anonymous people from an earlier century, were obviously once contemporary and the marked occasions were recent memories. Now looking at a theatrical shot of a group of children, you wonder about the individuals; you read so much into their expressions. How did their lives turn out, were their hopes and dreams fulfilled? To me these children represent our fleeting lives, their poses and stares remind us of the quote ‘As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you shall be’.

The interest in impersonal photographs is curious, they no longer have any real identity but also copies of these photos must exist carefully annotated in cherished family albums leading to a co-existence of remembered and imagined lives.