Are we stardust...

When clearing out my Mum and Dads house I tried to be ruthless, sending mountains of things to charity shops. Some things I just couldn’t part with and that included all the photographs. Not just those belonging to my Mum and Dad but also both of my Grans. I’ve now got suitcases full of them upstairs.

Maybe that is why the work of Amy Friend is resonating so much with me right now.

With her dare-alla-luce series, she literally brings new life to old pictures

“I return the subject of the photographs back to the light, while simultaneously bringing them forward. The images are permanently altered; they are lost and reborn, hence the title, Dare alla Luce, an Italian term meaning, “to bring to the light”“.

She pricks little holes in the original photographs and then shines light through from behind and rephotographs them, bringing them back to life. They are simply magical.

Through hand-manipulated interventions, I alter and subsequently re-photograph the images “re-making” photographs that oscillate between what is present and absent. I aim to comment on the fragile quality of the photographic object but also on the fragility of our lives, our history. All are lost so easily. By employing the tools of photography, I “re-use” light, allowing it to shine through the holes. In a playful and yet, literal manner, I return the subjects of the photographs back to the light, while simultaneously bringing them forward.

I have to be honest, these photographs, beautiful as they are, break my heart.

The people in them are long gone, only remembered by those who loved and miss them.

Queen Marie

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