Water Damage & Memories

I was looking through some photos and I decided I wanted to print some new ones out and mess with the print-outs, so I gathered the selection of photos in this post, printed them out, and sprinkled some water on them when they were still fresh from the printer.

I like to occasionally have physical photos as precious mementos, but at the same time I like them to be completely unprecious inkjet print-outs. Y'know, so they feel special to have, but at the same time I can handle them completely carelessly and rough them up and know it doesn't matter because I can always print new ones.

I mean, there has always been something special and nice about having physical photos, but I feel like that's enhanced with a papery feel or a crumpled texture. It adds some kind of extra tangibility which I like. It feels somehow closer or more real, like I am holding the memory in my hands more clearly.

There's something about the degradation of these photos, too. The weakening of the paper, or the bleeding of the colour. Instead of taking something away, it feels like it's adding something new. Somehow building on the picture and the memory with a new dimension.

It's a strange conviction, but I feel it. It's a thing. It reminds me of the way we would build upon art pieces in my A Level art class by making a bunch of photocopies of things and working on top of them to make new things. Memories are pretty weird. By their nature they're simply old things you're making new for a moment by reminding yourself of them and thinking about them. I'm gonna stop myself before I go on a tangent about how cool and weird the brain is, but shout out to memories and stuff - you're very interesting.