Darkened Snaps Lightened

These snapshots are an unrealized family history that is repurposed and reappropriated. The act of darkening the images creates a clouded effect to the reality of the whimsical moments presented. Some moments are then manipulated to bring attention to idiosyncratic detail. The question of whether a smile was true or forced questions the very nature of photography’s indexical relationship to reality. How does the viewer decipher the image through the artist’s bag of tricks, distractions, and revelations? Nostaligic identification with these images brings to light the viewer’s own history. Smoke & Mirrors, a mechanism of photography itself, it integral to this project in its use of family narrative to interrogate narrative as a device.