2023

inherited nostalgia

For the first sixteen years of my life, my mom was closed off. I didn’t have a personal relationship with her. I didn’t have an idea what kind of person she was. Aside from the normal “mom” things, like telling me to clean my room or that it was time to eat, I don’t recall having an actual conversation with her until the COVID-19 lockdown. In a conversation that I had with my grandma, she described how lively and mischievous my mom was growing up, an antonym to how I perceived her. That disconnect set me on a quest to explore my mom’s childhood through the thousands of photographs I got my hands on to discover who she was.

A critical part of my process was asking my mom to describe the moments that were captured in the photographs I was planned on manipulating. Seeing her face light up in excitement as she provided a narrative to the still frames directed my manipulation.

Each photograph is mirrored, my mom being removed from the bottom half. Overlaid on top is an Arabic poem that my mom transcribed (the contents of the poem aren’t relevant except for the fact that it resonated with her). 

On the top half, the text evades every figure except for my mom, symbolizing that their characteristics from childhood still remain with them today. The text over my mom is meant to symbolize how those characteristics are buried alongside her memories. 

On the bottom half of the compositions, the space that my mom took up in the top image is empty, missing both her and the text. The bottom half is intended to act as a reflection of her adult self, void of the energy and light that she had as a child.

I chose to pursue this series to connect with my mom. I’ve become more aware of the remnants of my mom’s childhood self through her storytelling. Her storytelling became my connection to her, and those memories are the most valuable things I’ve inherited from her.

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Miscellaneous 2019 - 2023