Memories in Music 

The overriding concept behind this work is to study the strong link between music and memories. Throughout this series, the underlying theme is to comment on how specific memories can be evoked whilst listening to specific songs.

This focus came from my own personal experiences of music, as an endless list of songs have soundtracked my life, through both positive and negative moments. The concept of exploring this photographically came about years ago, at a time when music was particularly prominent in my life and I used it as a source of support. It was then that it became apparent just how much music was an integral factor to me, and that I would usually refer back to specific musicians or songs to give me comfort through the memories that they would provide.

This work exists for me to explore my past and create a tangible piece of that nostalgia. The process of creating this series can almost be seen as being therapeutic. The regular discussions with family members about songs that hold special memories, coupled with my concurrent research into family photo albums and having active discussions with family members and looking through my own childhood photographs, the discussion of Polaroids became inseparable to the idea of nostalgia. The imperfect washed out colours, and soft focus that the camera produces is reference to how memories are often fragmented, imperfect, and not fully constructed within our minds. This is exasperated through the photographs present in this exhibition being created from Polaroid emulsion lifts to further reinforce the fragility of memories.

Each photograph corresponds to a specific song and then the particular memory I have that it relates to. A handful of the songs which have been used as a reference feature in the piece of moving image in relation to one of the Polaroids on the wall, depicting the same environment and memory.