Film – Bridge Project Display
There are so many ways to display photographs, and I have experimented with many of them. I fell in love with analog photography when I was 15, and proceeded to experiment in the darkroom as much as I could. When I chose to use a roll of film for my bridge project, I realized that I had never really taken the time to appreciate film for what it is – a medium for projection, development, and documentation. These are three words that encapsulate all the emotions that make art poignant for me. Light is exposed onto the film by the opening of the shutter. You’ve taken a photograph. But this process would be lost completely without developing the roll. All the records of that experience would be gone. This is why freshly developed film carries its own magic. You’ve processed your experience, and now it is ready to be displayed.
But what about the memories you don’t want to process? People you no longer speak to, reflections of someone you once were, a part of you that’s lost somehow. That part can live on through film. A version of you, projected on a thin plastic sheet, that could last in the physical world longer than you do. This is a concept I’d hidden from myself before I examined what film is capable of.
For my physical presentation, I wanted to play with the idea of projection and transparency, emotionally and conceptually. My planned setup was not a mirror, because my goal was not to connote self reflection. To show my theme of transparency, I would put the strips of film and my notes taped tightly to a plane of glass or plexi. (I loved the idea of glass, because it adds a weighted, solid feel to the flimsiness of film.) On one side of the glass would be a bright light, hitting the negatives and showing their colorful patterns and stories. I originally thought of just using a projector, but I decided it would suit the project more to focus on the film as the art on display, not the photographs on it. Keeping the negatives in their physical form also allows the photographs to hide under a layer of mystery. Instead of writing an artist statement to go along with this work, I used notes and scribbled thoughts, similar to what would be in my sketch book. I wanted to reveal just enough information to be curious about the film they are inspecting, but not to give away the whole story.
All of these little elements convey the beautiful and complex miracle that is film photography. Although I was not able to purchase glass before displaying my project, my mirror prototype served its purpose, and people drew their own interpretations from the symbols it holds. I sincerely hope to continue to design this display, and to continue to finally explore film itself.
