Carolyn Schultz

Pin-point

A photographic series exploring memory lapse.

It is profoundly impossible to remember every detail surrounding a single moment in your life; that is why we take photographs. While looking through old family photos, I was reflecting back upon those moment, however, I could only vividly see certain elements in my mind. When I came across the photograph of my father walking on the beach in North Carolina I remembered beinging there, I remembered seeing him a few steps behind me and I remembered a kite wavering overhead, but I did not remember the dog next to us close to the water, or that it was a cloudless day. Suddenly, I wanted to explore and exploit this revelation.

I began searching for compelling images from my childhood. Once I had printed a few of them out I worked to devise a way to highlight what I remembered most about each still. The word highlight struck a chord with me. Memory is fickle and spotting, personally I have many holes in mine. The idea of holes and light came together, I decided to poke through the photographs with a pin, in an effort to outline the pieces of the photos that are most evident when I hold them in my hands. Then, I placed the images on a lightbox and photographed them.

The light illuminates the pinholes, indirectly emphasizing the lapses in my memory.