https://www.lensculture.com/cbenitah

French photographer Carolle Benitah uses beads, coloured thread and scissors in order to alter her family photo albums to explore her memories during childhood as a way to understand her current identity. Benitah became interested in her family pictures when she looked through a family album and found herself “overwhelmed by an emotion”. She explains that the photographs represented “me, spoke about me and my family, told things about my identity, my place in the world, my family history and its secrets, the fears that constructed me, and many other things that contributed to who I am today”.

The artist says that she “excavated” images in which she appears from family albums and chose snapshots that relate to memories and loss. Benitah carried out a process of order, classification, scanning and then printing. She never manipulates the original photo. Once the images are chosen, she starts to tell her version of the story. Benitah explains that “The past of a human being, is neither permanent or finished, but reconstructed in the present time”. I find it interesting how Benitah doesn’t do anything directly on the original image. If you manipulate the original then it would be changed forever. However, there is some sort of dedication that comes when adjusting the original since you are essentially rewriting your past and making a statement.

For the last step she adds needlework. Embroidery is strongly linked to the environment in which she grew up in. She uses embroidery with a purpose, a decorative function to re-interpret her own history. “With each stitch I make a hole with a needle. Each hole is putting a death of my demons. It’s like an exorcism. I make holes in paper untilI am not hurting any more.”

I selected Benitah as one of my references because of the visual aspects portrayed in her work. For my own personal investigation, I would like to manipulate and physically edit my archival imagery through artistic techniques, whether that may be sewing, drawing or cutting.

She demonstrates her feelings towards her childhood from her current perspective, which is what I intend to do in my own project. Through artistic techniques, I want to portray how grateful I am to have lived in various countries. It has allowed me to gain cultural knowledge, new experiences and memories.

By manipulating my archival images, I want to demonstrate how memories slowly fade away in the passage of time. Revisiting my childhood images will help me to recall the moments in which the photographs were taken. The red illustrations will be symbolic of me leaving behind my traces in each country.

Carolle Benitah has embroidered red thread where both children have linked hands together. This area is the main visual element of the image since it is the only colour feature in the entire frame. As viewers, we know they are related because of the red string bounding their hands together. Their connection cannot be broken. The children are surrounded by large embroidered cockroaches leaving the viewer puzzled since we do not understand the context behind this piece. What I like about this image is that it’s completely up to the viewer’s interpretation. It doesn’t really make any sense because the concept is not personal to us but is for the artist. She has simply illustrated her ideas and how she views the moment that has been captured. 

This is one of Benitah’s photography works where she has physically cut out and removed 2 figures. What intrigues me is that she hasn’t abandoned the figures, she has included them outside of the frame. Perhaps it is a metaphor for their lost connection with Benitah in present day. This is another piece where we as viewer’s don’t fully understand the context behind the photograph. The child on the left hand side has been covered in red thread, leaving only an outline of who was once there. This element contrasts with the remaining black and white subjects, highlighting its significance. Perhaps the missing figures are symbolic of her childhood memories slowly being erased.