2023

In The Blink Of Eyes - Beyond The Blink Of Life
A photo archive

The circulation of photographs of our lost ones indicates that the photo, rather than the flat death of the subject, reinforces life in the presence of the lost ones in the family. Since interacting with these images becomes a ritual, they continue the nurturing role of our decased ones. While we readily display happy moments captured in photos, we often hesitate to reveal the painful ones. This preference stems from the ease of sharing joyous memories, easily understandable even to strangers while comprehending and sharing the depth of pain and trauma demands a closer, more intimate connection.

Moreover, as Edwards has noted the role of repetitive viewing in reinforcing memory within photos (2005), our repetitive act of seeing the lost ones’ photos reinforces our relationships with them. Through the layers of our memories and refracted perspectives of them, seeing their photos reinforces the essence of kinship in our upbringing and identity formation. This challenges the idea of “flat death” by Roland Barthes, which assumes that the photo freezes the subject to object the moment it is taken, rendering it lifeless and devoid of development (1980).

Credit: Nguyen Cam Anh, Lai Minh Ngoc, Dao Nguyen Tuong Van, Mai Nguyen To Nhu, Tran Nguyen Bao Ngoc

December 14, 2023.

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