Message in a Bottle
I am a third year student at the University of Wales Trinity St David studying Photography in the Arts. For my final major project I will be doing something quite interactive and I’m trying to find photographers who are enthusiastic about using film to take part.
Photographs once had a physical presence, something you could hold and own. Still something which could be reproduced but there would always be that first ‘original’ print which would be produced. Now the family photo album is something more of a digital archive. Not only is everything safely backed up on your computer or hard drive etc, the way photographs are shared on social media we have this sort of online archive which we can access from anywhere and regardless of if your phone has broken or you’ve lost your memory card, the images will always exist in these pockets of the internet.
What I want to do is bring back that feeling of having one photo. One copy which only exists as something physical. One negative and one photograph. Having no backup exist anywhere.
I plan to use medium format film and I will print one of each photo and then destroy the negative, recording the destruction. I will then actually post each photo to somebody around the world with a handwritten explanation of who I am and what I am doing. This process may be difficult to begin with as I have to learn to just let go of the photograph, knowing I may never see it again. It will remain as just a memory to me, something I can never reproduce or recapture. I will also ask each person who I write to repeat the process and send me back an original photo of whatever subject matter they see fit.
If you should choose to be involved please email me with a postal address at briabs@hotmail.co.uk .
Thank you in advance
Photographs once had a physical presence, something you could hold and own. Still something which could be reproduced but there would always be that first ‘original’ print which would be produced. Now the family photo album is something more of a digital archive. Not only is everything safely backed up on your computer or hard drive etc, the way photographs are shared on social media we have this sort of online archive which we can access from anywhere and regardless of if your phone has broken or you’ve lost your memory card, the images will always exist in these pockets of the internet.
What I want to do is bring back that feeling of having one photo. One copy which only exists as something physical. One negative and one photograph. Having no backup exist anywhere.
I plan to use medium format film and I will print one of each photo and then destroy the negative, recording the destruction. I will then actually post each photo to somebody around the world with a handwritten explanation of who I am and what I am doing. This process may be difficult to begin with as I have to learn to just let go of the photograph, knowing I may never see it again. It will remain as just a memory to me, something I can never reproduce or recapture. I will also ask each person who I write to repeat the process and send me back an original photo of whatever subject matter they see fit.
If you should choose to be involved please email me with a postal address at briabs@hotmail.co.uk .
Thank you in advance