CLAIRE NEWMAN-WILLIAMS
THERE WAS & THERE WAS NOT
At the heart of my photographic work is the richness and complexity of memory. Not semantic memory which recalls days, dates, times and facts, but autobiographical memory where we actually reconstruct moments in sensory detail, re-living it from the inside so to speak. When memory fails us distorting the facts, and imagination fills the gaps, the resulting images inhabit that shifting world where perception and imagination meet.
I don’t use any one camera or process to produce my images. I have a cupboard full of old film cameras; a Brownie Autograph from the early 1900’s, a 1940’s Speed Graphic, old polaroids, plastic Holgas, and 35mm Nikons from the 1970’s.
Now when I shoot, I regularly find myself capturing somewhat random images that inspire me at the time, but have no real sense of context. That comes later when I layer together the different elements of a piece to create a narrative. In the moments that I capture the images it’s more like being a collector than a photographer. Combining them later becomes a post-photographic process and this is where the story is told.
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