NEVER LET ME GO: MEMORY LOSS AND THE ARCHIVE

Solo Exhibition New England School of Photography Boston, Massachusetts Light Chamber Exposure, Type II Provia 100F 4x5 2014

A New Orleans native, Guillaume began to question the material photograph after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Left only with his grandmother’s heavily damaged photographic archive, he started to see its’ molded paper as representational. These moments seemingly erased - blurred faces, script notes worn, once vivid memories melted between Mississippi River water and aged glue – instead highlighting a communal experience; one in which those who experience loss are encouraged to erase memory. Conversely, Never Let Me Go: Memory, Loss, and the Archive re-appropriates the family memento, attempting to find blended commonalities among loss, and ultimately methods of memory permanence.