Memories Contact Sheet ( Reflection 3)

  Reflection -  Memories Never Die

Concept

From a scientific point of view, it is fair to say that memories are simply the results of the synthesis of two proteins in your brain in response to stimuli that originates from the unconscious. (http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/human-memory.htm)  From en emotional point of view, I believe memories are reminders of past experiences that make an individual the person he/she is in the present. Memories, positive or negative, leave profound marks on the soul and forever play a role in one’s decisions, ideas and preferences.

In my photographs, I am demonstrating the concept of repressed memories. For the first photo, I chose to photograph and empty room with a door slightly open, representing the human brain retrieving an idea and letting it explode to the surface. Not only I used confetti to exaggerate the effect of explosion but also indicate that the memories are positive since the confetti are usually part of joyful events.

In my second photo, I am demonstrating the same concept but in a slightly different way. I am depicting the theme of bad memories. By throwing a box in the snow, I am representing one’s thoughts being forgotten behind intentionally like empty, useless boxes or trash, left on the street.  It can also display the idea of trying to forget, trying to force thoughts in a box so they never resurface and hunt the individual.

In both images, I tried to use the rule of third,  placing the main subject on an important interjection. I also wanted to be minimalist and use empty spaces to illustrate the pureness of the mind, how transparent it is. Furthermore, by doing conceptual minimalist images, I wanted to create images that would intrigue the viewer and create a mysterious atmosphere.

Technicalities

I did my shoot with a Leica R4s and Ilford 400 35 mm film.(I did not use Delta 400, so I ended up having more grain in my images) I spent numerous hours in the dark room. The first roll of film that I developed ended up being underexposed. I believe my second roll was more successful, for that reason, I made the contact sheet based on that shoot. My contact sheet recquired and unequal exposition. I exposed the first rows for twenty seconds and the bottom rows for ten seconds, using an aperture of 2,8 an no filter.

  

For the Good Memories shot, I tried multiple times to achieve a decent amount of exposure. My picture was a bit underexposed so the exposure time was quite short. I tried 10 seconds with no filter, it lacked contrast. The most successful print has been exposed for ten seconds, with an aperture of 2,8 and I use a filter of 3.

For the Bad Memories shot, I also tried multiple exposures before I reached a decent time, giving me decent tones. It was difficult to achieve a good exposure because most of the image is white. (snow)   I started with an exposure of 12 seconds and it was obviously not enough. After several tries, I achieved a decent result using an exposure time of 55 seconds, an aperture of 2,8 and a filter of 2. I tried using a filter of 3 and the snow became extremely white and I lost all tones. I had to burn certain areas to accentuate the different grays. I exposed the portion where the box is for an additional 12 seconds and the lower border of the image for 10 seconds, allowing me to obtain a pale gray at the bottom, defining the image from the photographic paper.

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