Faded Memories of Transience

(i)

After my grandfather’s recent passing, I’ve started thinking more about how much I am unaware
of my own past and family history, only knowing my grandparents through faded memories of my
childhood. At the end of my grandfather’s life, he barely remembered me and I, him, this notion of
the fragility of memory is something that I have latched onto in my own contemplation as I created
this project. The language barrier I’ve created from my attempts to assimilate into western culture
as a child makes trying to connect with my family and learn about that aspect of my past (and by
extension my present) incredibly difficult. Faded Memories of Transience utilizes the images and
the lack of images at my disposal due to immigration leading to the limited access to archival material.
These images are an attempt to grasp what is left of my own memories of the people who were
once considered the most close to me in my life who are now only preserved through these frozen
moments in time; some of which I vaguely remember, some, not at all. This particular series is focused
on my mother’s side of the family of which these photographs and my mother’s memories are
all that’s left of them. While in the making of this project, my grandmother also passed away quite
suddenly but I was lucky enough to hear her speak about my mother’s side of the family through her
own knowledge and memories as our last conversation together. Taking in the bits and pieces I could
understand and nodding along to the parts I couldn’t. I aim to focus on the incomplete nature of
memories and even imagery through their ability to not fully capture the truth and both seemingly
fading away with time.