For this edition of Unseen, we would like to present two photographers working on memory.
Even though the two artists work with radically different subjects and styles, they encounter similarities in the way they show memories fading and in their approach of photography as a way to work with memory.
Shimakage (Shadow of the Islands), by Japanese photographer Chieko Shiraishi, is a journey into Shiraishi's memories. In her images, taken in the small islands surrounding Japan, we find ourselves transported to the border of reality and the world of dreams. Her photographs evoke the feeling of memories that, as time passes, fade away and become blurred. To express this feeling, Shiraishi uses "zokin-Gake", a technique which involves applying oil paint on analog prints. Her images take us from the outside world to the inside world, revealing the wonder, the darkness and doubts that inhabit the photographer.
French photographer Elliott Verdier’s Reaching for Dawn series is the story of a piece of land on the shores of West Africa, where in the 19th century, the United States established its first colony, the Republic of Liberia. Of the bloody Liberian civil war (1989-2003) that decimated Liberia, its population does not speak. No proper memorial has been built, no day is dedicated to commemoration. The trauma carved into the population’s flesh is crystallized in the society’s weak foundations and bleeds onto a new generation with a hazy future.
The series explores the mechanisms of resilience and the invisible resorts of psychic traumas and memories of war.