Geoffrey Batchen

Geoffrey Batchen, Forget Me Not: Photography And Remembrance, Princeton Architectural Press (2006), First paperback edition. I found Geoffrey Batchen’s Forget me not: photography & remembrance (Princeton Archtectural Press, 2004) particularly interesting while also reading through an autograph/commonplace book album relating to my family in the 1890s through to 1940. Batchen’s starting point is nicely summarised in his conclusion (page 94) when he states that ‘contrary to popular show more opinion, photography does not enhance memory - involuntary, physically embracing and immediate memory - but rather replaces it with images - images that are historical, coherent, informational. To induce the full sensorial experience of involuntary memory, a photograph must be transformed’ (page 94). Photographs are static - to generate living and emotive memories they need to be accompanied by other means and media, for instance, ‘addition of writing, paint, framing, embroidery, fabric string, hair, flowers, butterfly wings and other images’ (page 94). Batchen, page 47, goes on to say:‘Handwriting...personalises photography. Even when prosaic in content, handwritten inscriptions suggest the voice of the writer, adding sound to the senses of touch and sight already engaged’. show less

Testo importante, che arriva in Italia in grande ritardo (scritto nel 1997, è tradotto nel 2014, con una nuova prefazione dell'autore che lo ricontestualizza). Batchen costruisce un viaggio affascinante e colto, lasciandosi guidare dall'eredità di Derrida (e risultando quindi a tratti arduo per chi privo di strumenti filosofici) e andando in cerca, come nota lo stesso autore, non tanto della prima fotografia o della data di nascita dello strumento quando dell'origine del "desiderio" cui show more allude nel titolo, che corrisponde a un mutamento antropologico di enorme portata. Libro importante per comprendere la fotografia e la contemporaneità. show less