We are a period of light
The concept of the book We are a period of light is based on drawing the viewer's attention to the transience of time. It is to represent our extensive roots that are entangled with our instant present in which we have to learn to make sense of ourselves and what was given to us. I have combined archival photographs of my family—from times when I did not yet exist—with photographs from my personal present. The archival photographs retain a monotonous beige tone, typical of old photographs, while the contemporary photographs have been tinted in pastel colors to appeal to the vibrancy of the here and now. As the viewer turns the pages, they will
perceive a photo from the past in expected order next to a present-day image: first past, then present. This is followed by an almost imperceptible yet present loop of the Japanese binding, a white space, like an invisible path, on the reverse of which one ultimately lands in the past again, a memory that, chronologically speaking, lies behind us, and yet we carry it around nostalgically, like an echo. The white thread, the loop of the Japanese binding, represents the connection that we hold to the past, which comes to our conciousness in waves similar to the flick through the book.
Examples of images connected by the loop of the japanese binding (front to back)
fig. 1: Touching nature (inanimate, reference to death)
fig. 2: Touching life, my father’s childhood
fig. 3: Me by a body of water, self reflection
fig. 4: My mother by a body of water, portrait
fig. 5: Traces of me in form of blood stains
fig. 6: Traces of my mother in portraits through time