Wednesday, 10 May 2023

When looking at photographs of myself

Zurich, Christmas 2015

Zurich, Sihlquai, February 2016

Bern, September 2016

Kosmos, Zurich, November 2017

Looking at these photographs creates a movie in my head. Pictures follow pictures. Of a christmas tree, for instance, that I was looking at in the first pic. Of the Photobastei that Blazenka, the photographer, and I had visited on a rainy day before we moved on via the Sihlquai to the Landesmuseum. Of the Kunstmuseum in Bern that we had gone to see. Of the bookstore at the Kosmos.

I cannot recall anything specific, it is more akin to a blur of images that make me feel wonder how memory works. Definitely not the way that makes much sense to me.

Photographs remind me of how I once looked, or rather, how I presented myself to the camera. They are certificates of presence, as  Roland Barthes phrased it, that help me remember where I once have been. What was then going through my mind has however almost completely vanished; our consciousness, it seems to me, is clearly overrated.

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