0836-724752 STEVE.

‘0836-724-752 STEVE’ is my most recent project where I have been exploring my identity through manipulating archive images of my parents and grandparents. This work aims to explore how similar I am to my parents when they were my age, as I edit myself into my family archive images. The work plays with the notions of time, memory and truth and the edits give the old images a new meaning. I have also experimented with different techniques like projection to create more abstract and surreal images. This keeps the viewer engaged and questioning why these photos are included in what seems to be just a collection of archive images. I felt it was important to include these projection photos as the other edits are very subtle, and the viewer would need more obvious images to show what this work represents.

This project also includes images I have taken on my uncles old 35mm camera from the 1970s. These images represent what my parents’ life looks like now – 40 years later and with two daughters. I chose to shoot on film so that they work with the aesthetic of the archive images, and to show subtle hints of time passing.

The project title comes from a beer mat that my dad gave my mum the night they met with his name and phone number on, that my mum has kept all these years. The beer mat is the reason I exist and represents two peoples lives intertwining.