Making Memories are ultra large format contact prints. Created on colour photographic paper, exposed using the light from burning old personal photographs. In the series, Walter & Zoniel reflect upon the roles of the present, past and future in our minds. Through conceptual photographic works that address their subjects on several levels, the artists highlight the multi-faceted nature of time, memory and physical presence. In an era where we are so concerned with the capturing of our memories, do we sacrifice the actual act of making them and as such, the ability to recognise the present moment that we are in?
As the old images burn and our memories are ignited, the light they emit creates new images by exposing the photographic paper. The slight abstractions and variations in the final works draw to mind the manner in which our memories work and their own inconsistencies.
The sitter is placed between the old image being burned and the new image being created. During the short time of the exposure and the final seconds of life of the nostalgia in its present form, the sitter verbally tells the story of the image that they are destroying to create the future work. The sitter’s shadow throws their reversed silhouette onto the developing image, altering the exposure and imprinting the present moment in time and the story being told of the past, captured in abstraction.