Half-remembered
2023 - ongoing
Personally, I believe that the perfect illustration of imaginative force is dreams. They present us with narrative that has been shattered, shrouded, and sent to the corners of knowing. They are immersed in fog and yet vivid. When Hypnos pulls its influence each morning, we grapple with what we have just experienced, to little avail. Any reproduction of the narrative would be faded; a Xerox of a Xerox of a memory. Fragments of understanding, twisting on the edges of sense.
Within this photo series, I attempt to coalesce that which is not there. The liminal space between fragment A and remnant B. By delineating this space between the fictive imagery of each photo, the viewer is forced to create the narrative themselves. When viewing the photo-set picturing a man standing in the dark juxtaposed with a table in need of clearing. Obvious questions arise; who is this man, and what has he to do with the dirty dishes on the table? What does the man see behind the eye of the camera? What noises come to the ear? Smells? Where is he?
In another pair, a TV is set high in the wall, a shirt hangs underneath. The scene below is one of hurried leaving; a cushion sits awry on the sofa. Clothes tossed haphazardly. A small tub of spackle incongruously occupies the side table. This picture’s partner shows a stairwell, leading to a door. A couple speaks just before the portal to who-knows-where. We cannot know what they say or what emotions they are trying to convey, though body language suggests an argument, or a declaration, or some other action spurred by passion. And then there is the space between. The sound of a door slammed. The cry to a lover to wait...just wait. The smell of a neighbours cooking. The feel of the banister as stairs are taken two three four at a time. There is an entire lifetime in the micrometer that separates photo A from picture B. What details lie forgotten in a story not-yet written?
In this way do I invite you to make the leap from docile viewer to active participant. To join in the creation of a narrative of the forgotten; a mythology of the half-remembered. Within the in-between lies detail yet unimagined.
© 2025 Erik Luchtenberg