Layering Time/Found Family (2024)

‘Layering Time’ and ‘Found Family’ centre around a series of found photographs of a family on holiday. It explores notions of time, memory and nostalgia along with the impulse to connect to strangers and a bygone era.

 

Taking elements of their physical appearance, body language and the settings they are in as inspiration, my images extend the series of family photographs while imagining how their story could continue. These images act as photographic study as I seek to learn and discover more about these unknown people.

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My images are layered on top of the original found images, creating the impression of ‘layering time’. By physically bringing two images together, two different time periods are also brought together, melting and blending into one. The process of producing these double exposures in the darkroom is integral to the outcome as it links to the physical nature of old photographs before the advent of digital photography.

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This project touches on themes of the vernacular, drawing upon the aesthetics of the family photograph – awkward poses and uncomfortable facial expressions – to produce staged images that look like authentic images of the family archive.