Photos keep the past alive

Projects > Photos keep the past alive

One thing I am continuously drawn back to is the history of my family. I realized this tends to form the basis of my artwork, sparked by my obsession with flicking through old family photographs. I'm fascinated by the way they lived and coming from a mixed background, I can explore cultures from the Middle East and Asia. These old family photos are beautiful on their own and keep the past alive.

Response to:

Kusama Obsession

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Chosen by:

Charlotte Bonham-Carter, Critic, Curator of Art on the Underground and Associate Professor of Art History, March 2012

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Project blog

Developing Photos (not chemically)

Posted: 11/04/12

Drawn reponse to one of my superimposed images. Similarly to painting, drawing is a time-consuming process. This long process is almost like the process of developing photographs, but manually. The more you work with a particular photograph, the more you feel like you know that captured moment...

Developing Photos 2

Posted: 11/04/12

I wanted to recreate the superimposed photographs through a different medium. I experimented with oil painting onto MDF applied with acrylic primer, so that the oil paints would have a lighter effect and sutble thin washes could be achieved.

Developing Photos 3

Posted: 11/04/12

Painted response to my superimposed images. Oil paint on cartidge paper with acrylic primer.

Original Photographs

Posted: 11/04/12

These are the original pairs of photos before I superimposed myself as a child into the old family photographs. The old photos are on the left of each pair. Numbers 1 and 3 are set in South Korea, and Number 2 is set in Israel.

Final Superimposed Images

Posted: 11/04/12

I wanted to combine different spaces of time. I played around with superimposing my presence into old family photographs using Photoshop, appearing as though I was actually there at the time. By mixing more recent photos of me as a child with old family photos, I am narrowing the gap between me...