Memories of the Present

The flow of time appears constant, moving relentlessly forward from a fixed past, through the present, and into an uncertain future. From our everyday experience, this seems unquestionably true. But what if this is actually a shared illusion and reflects a profound limitation of our perception and understanding? Photography has long been considered a means of objectively capturing the truth because of the medium’s distinctive ability to depict past events in the present. Contemporary photography has blurred the lines between objective and subjective representation, now focusing more on perceptions of the world around us, and how photographs inform our understanding of history, time, and memory. In this new portfolio of work, “Memories of the Present,” I continue the exploration of time and memory… but offer images as allegory and as a challenge to the conception of time as a constant and invariable flow of independent moments. Imagine walking down a crowded city street when suddenly you glance up and catch a fleeting glimpse of yourself 20 paces (and 20 seconds) ahead, dressed exactly the same, turning the next corner and then vanishing from view. The photographs in this portfolio offer opportunities for reflection and clarity. The photographs are not fabricated or manipulated, where something has been artificially added to the composition. Rather the images are a selective reconstruction of reality, of photographically captured “present moments,” suggesting an alternative and possibly more representative view of the world as is. Fred Zafran December 2016