Reservoir/The Archivist's Loupe
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Statement
The Archivist's Loupe
The Library of Congress and other archives of the American historical and cultural way of life record an official view of our history. The Library of Congress, with its collections of photographs and texts is viewed as containing knowledge necessary to the institution of democracy, and to the definition of the American way of life. Memory, however, is not neutral.
This project considers the gap that may be present between how such archival systems remember and how we are left to reconcile other ways of recollection. The young people shown in this project were included in the records as subjects of a social structure that sought to train, educate and assimilate them into a society that excluded their pasts and needs. The methodology of this education was often isolating, harsh, abusive and lonely. These collages are meant to reflect another way of remembering outside of the official versions. The use of layered collage, with its ripping, re-juxtaposition and obfuscation, reflects the brutality of these educational systems and the complex textures of information and memory as well as the gap that occurs between official narratives and lived experience. In my own practice, the loupe is an emblem of my wish to look closer and to see what may not be noticed.
This project was completed within the framework of Reservoir, a nine month mentored practice through The Los Angeles Center of Photography with the goal of exploring photography, well-being and lonliness. My mentor for these nine months and more was Mishka Henner.