For my project, I was inspired by Benitah since she adds embroidery to archives from her childhood. I did a few experiments of key photos of my grandparents. Instead of sewing them all however, I arranged the thread in different ways to cause the ’embroidery’ to look softer and flow more. Benitah shows a lot of emotions through her embroidery, adding harsh threaded imagery into the photos. I wanted to convey a happier message (mainly) for my work, and therefore used a lot of circular arrangements to represent the feelings of love between my grandparents.

Archives

I decided to use a red thread for my work since it is the colour representing love. Although it may be seen as a cliché, I think it was the most appropriate colour to use. As I said, it is a portrayal of love, however it also represents pain, acting as a foreshadowing for the pain my grandad experienced after my grandmother’s death.

I firstly experimented with this picture, creating two different arrangements of the thread, twirling it around my grandparents. I think both were an effective way of using the thread.

I also created a third experiment, actually sewing into the photograph, creating harsher shapes. I think this one was not effective, the design being too harsh and being disruptive.

This was the second picture I experimented with, and I think I once again both results were effective.

These experiments created a harsher result, since I once again embroidered the photos. I think these are quite effective, especially the portrait of my grandma, adding character to the photos.

I arranged the thread on these photos in a simple yet effective way, the thread adding a leading line to the photos. Despite the shadow of the thread not being intentional, I think it looks quite effective. I experimented on all the archives, sometimes even creating two different arragements on one photo. I added thread to all of the archives I will be using in my photobook, further differenciating them from the new photos I took myself, as well as adding my own touch to them in the style of Benitah.

Photos Souvenirs- Carolle Bénitah

Photos Souvenirs is an exploration of Bénitah’s memories from her childhood in Morocco and was worked on between 2009 and 2014. This series is made up of old family achieves, which she manipulates by threading beads and embroidering designs relating to her feelings towards each photographic memories. She calls the photos she finds “excavations”, and she starts by transposing them onto new paper. She mostly uses red thread and beads, but some of her pieces also include gold and black coloured material. They add a shine to her photos, and each design holds significance. She sometimes even manipulates the photos in a more destructive way, cutting out individuals and placing them elsewhere.

Growing up in a traditional Moroccan household, Bénitah was expected to do many typically- feminine tasks. The embroidery she adds to the achieves hold a lot of significance, portraying how she was taught to sew as a girl, and was expected to continue the activity for her entire life. She uses this to portray her distaste of being a good girl, a good wife and a loving mother. Embroidery in itself is a calm activity, however, Bénitah uses it to show her anger and other strong emotions. I think she made it to deal with her past but also to show others how not every picture is truthful.

The Design

The book is around the size of an A4 (21cm x 24cm), with thick coloured paper. The start and end pages of the book are yellow black and red, however the rest of the pages are white, the only colour being the pictures. The outside of the book is a hardcover and shows a snapshot of Benitah’s past with red glitter appearing to slide down the page. It has 112 pages and 53 photos featured inside. The title is quite literal and relevant to her project, Photos Souvenirs indicating quite literally what the photos inside feature. The is one photo per page, in different positions around the two pages, some being directly printed across both pages. There is not much writing in the book except at the end, the photos telling the entire story of her life. The photos are all in chronological order, from when she was very young to her and her family as adults/ elders. Most of the pictures are embroidered with red, gold or black thread (some also including other media), the designs adding a new meaning to each photograph. The photos don’t have captions, however a glossary at the back provides the viewer with the name of each photo both in English and French. A short statement, written by Benitah in English and French, is on one of the last pages of the photobook, printed in white on a black page. It gives a short insight on the production of the book, and her thoughts behind it. There are 250 copies of the special edition that includes 6 embroidered prints.

Sub Selection

For this project, I also wanted to include some photos from my grandad’s own home, therefore I used the pictures I took earlier this year, when I went over for the summer.

Sub Selection

For this shoot, I went into another natural environment, however, this time I focussed more on landscapes. I want to show my grandparents relationship through nature, and I think I captured some images which hold a lot of significance. I once again used a slow shutter speed to cause any movement to blur, causing the photos to have a timeless appearance.

Sub Selection

While looking through archives and talking to my grandad, I noticed how him and my grandma felt very connected to nature. Therefore, for my first shoot I decided to take my pictures on a beach, one of the places where my grandparents had many of their photos taken. I even recreated some of the archives. Moreover, I decided to focus on the environment itself. I took some of my photos of the ocean on a slow shutterspeed, allowing the photo to blur from movement. I think those pictures are a good portrayal of memories, the soft, dreamlike look of them being a interpretation of nostalgia.

For my project, I wanted to explore the relationship between my grandparents in the years before my grandmother passed. I think it is important to look back at the past instead of just focussing on the present, which is why I looked into the achieves my grandad still stores in his home in Jawor, Poland. The pictures of my grandparents show many different emotions, not just happiness like typical family snapshots tend to. I noticed that many of the pictures were taken in natural places, outside, which inspired me for my photoshoots.

who, what, where, when, how

who: I will be interviewing my grandad, as he plays a major role in my project.

what: I will interview him about the memories he has of my grandma, who passed on the 29th of August 1992. I want to find out more about their life together so that my project can be more personal.

where: I will complete the interview at home, as this will be most comfortable.

when: I will do it during the Christmas holidays, when my grandad comes over.

how: I will note down questions that I will use as prompts, and then record the interview so that I can transcribe and translate it.

why: It is important to get my grandad’s own views and memories written down as they can be used as inspiration for my photoshoots and photobook. It will help my project become richer and more detailed.

who, what, where, when, how

Photoshoot 1:

who: The pictures will be of my grandad, portraying the impact of my grandmother’s passing in 1992.

what: I will also take pictures of the beach itself, since my grandparents loved the outside and therefore nature will be a good portrayal of their relationship.

where: I will be going to the beach since it is a place that is present in many of the archives.

when: I will complete this photoshoot on a day where the light is soft, during the Christmas holidays.

how: I will use a digital camera and a slow shutter speed at times, causing the photos to have a dreamlike appearance to them.

Photoshoot 2:

who: The pictures will be of my grandad, portraying the impact of my grandmother’s passing in 1992.

what: I will also take pictures of plants and the environment, as the woods is a place where my grandad spends a lot of his time.

where: I will go to a reservoir to take my photos, allowing me to photograph both trees and water.

when: I will complete this photoshoot on cloudy day, perhaps when its raining, during the Christmas holidays.

how: I will use a digital camera and a slow shutter speed at times. I might also use flash to cause the photos to look sharper, especially when capturing details in plants.

About Yury Li-Toroptsov

He was born in 1974 in a rural community near Vladivostok, Russia. Yury Li-Toroptsov is a visual artist, a certified professional coach, and a practitioner of arts-based coaching for individual and business clients. Toroptsov lives and works in Paris. 

In 2003, he opened a new professional path and established himself as an artist photographer. Nourished by his Far Eastern origins, his American stays and his residence in Europe, Yury Li-Toroptsov works on what constitutes the common denominator of distant cultures: the relationship of humans to their own identity and the permanence of myths. He used his interests to even explore the life of his father, who passed when he was a child.

His Work

His work consists of coloured images, depicting both objects and landscapes, which all relate to the same topic. He creates both professional- looking photos and more amateur- looking photos, however, both are effective in portraying the story he wants to tell through his work. All his photos are brightly coloured and include many different patterns and textures, causing his images to be very interesting to look at.

Yury Li-Toroptsov: Deleted Scene

On a mission to photograph the invisible, with Deleted Scene photographer Yury Toroptsov takes us to Eastern Siberia in a unique story of pursuit along intermingling lines that form a complex labyrinth. Archival documents, old photographs, views of the timeless taiga or of contemporary Siberia, fragments or deleted scenes are arranged here as elements of a narrative.

He returned to Russia to visit the scattered remnants of his father’s memory. His father died when he was two, meaning Toroptsov has no memories of him. Almost none of his possessions were preserved by his mother, except his father’s camera. When Toroptsov was 9 he found it and look it apart. Unknowingly, he destroyed the last object that could help him recall his father. Now, the only thing left over are his photos since he was am amateur photographer.

Toroptsov describes his father as ‘an abstract character, a shadow at the gates of nothingness’, which explains the thought behind his photos. Toroptsov found it hard to complete his project since his father has almosty been forgotten, and all he knew about him was from stories that knew he told him. His father is simply a memory, and I think the way Toroptsov put together this project is a very effective way of showing his relationship with his father, being so close to him despite not knowing him at all. The project was based on three different events, all somehow linking his father. His father, along with his mother and Toroptsov himself, came accross Japanese director Akira Kurosawa shooting his Oscar-winning film “Dersu Uzala” in a forest while driving past, From there Toroptsov based his project on this event, and others linked to it.

This crossing of paths marked an important moment in Toroptsov’s life, the film being a short of reminder of a time when the Toroptsov family was happy. The name Deleted Scene compares the event with his father.

Image Analysis

This photo consists of a stuffed tiger, a direct representation of the movie set that Toroptsov encountered as a young child with his family. The photo is a portrayal of one of the moments Toroptsov has with his father, despite not remembering the event take place.

The black and white photo has a simple composition, the area of focus, being the tiger’s muzzle, being in the middle of the photograph. The white tones on the tiger’s muzzle is what draws the viewer’s attention to the image, since it contrasts with the otherwise greyscale picture. The photo has a shallow depth of field, causing it to be quite a flat photograph. I think Toroptsov took this photograph as a representation of his father, not only linking the tiger to the movie set they saw but also to his father’s amateur photography hobby. All the photos throughout the photobook appear as though they lack a link, which shows just how significant context is, and how photos don’t always have to be obvious and literal. The viewer is encouraged to see each photo as a clue or part of the story, which they slowly collect as they go though the book. This photo is a powerful message of how important memories are, even if they seem insignificant at the time. I think Toroptsov is trying to show how his project doesn’t need a obvious link to his father to be about his father, causing this photo (like every other photo featured) to be very personal.

“From my early age I knew that imagination is a powerful transformational force”

-Yury Li-Toroptsov

This quote shows how Toroptsov believes in freedom of interpretation, which is clearly suggested through his work. I find it very inspiring that he uses places as a way of discovering his father, which is unlike other artists who tend to use archival imagery.

Yury Li-Toroptsov’s link to Nostalgia

Despite not having any personal memories of his father, Toroptsov clearly incoorperates the feelings of nostalgia in his work. Without knowing his story, any viewer can tell that his photobook is about memories or something in the past. I like how Toroptsov utilised important events to portray his father, through nature and objects that linked in with the movie set they saw on that one day. He presents both positive and negative aspects of nostalgia, causing the project to be a realistic take on how memories make us feel.

About Carolle Bénitah

She was born in 1965 and is aged 58 years old. Bénitah lives in Marseille, France. She is a French Moroccan photographer, who worked for ten years as a fashion designer before turning to photography in 2001, and now explores memory, family and the passage of time.  Often pairing old family snapshots with handmade accents, such as embroidery, beading and ink drawings, Bénitah seeks to reinterpret her own history as daughter, wife, and mother.

She began to become interested in her family photographs when flipping through an album of her childhood. She felt overwhelmed by an emotion that she did not understand. The photographs taken 40 years ago awakened a fear of something that was familiar yet also so unknown, causing her to feeling the need to add meaning to the photos. She wanted to explore her identity in this way, to help her define and understand herself more.

Her Work

She uses achieve photographs that she reprints and manipulates them using embroidery and sometimes even cut outs bits of the photo. The pictures are simple snapshots, purely taken for memories, memories which clearly mean a lot to Bénitah, in both a negative and positive way. In my project, I want to embroider on both new and old photos, using the thread as a representation of my grandmother.

Carolle Bénitah: Photos Souvenirs

“To embroider my photograph, I make holes in the paper. With each stitch, I stick the needle through the paper. Each hole is a putting to death of my demons. It is like an exorcism. I stab the paper until I don’t hurt anymore”

-Carolle Bénitah

Her most popular series, Photos Souvenirs, is an exploration of her memories from her childhood in Morocco and was worked on between 2009 and 2014. This series is made up of old family achieves, which she manipulates by threading beads and embroidering designs relating to her feelings towards each photographic memories. She calls the photos she finds “excavations”, and she starts by transposing them onto new paper. She mostly uses red thread and beads, but some of her pieces also include gold and black coloured material. They add a shine to her photos, and each design holds significance. She sometimes even manipulates the photos in a more destructive way, cutting out individuals and placing them elsewhere. Photos Souvenirs was exhibited at Rose Gallery, Santa Monica, in 2015.

Growing up in a traditional Moroccan household, Bénitah was expected to do many typically- feminine tasks. The embroidery she adds to the achieves hold a lot of significance, portraying how she was taught to sew as a girl, and was expected to continue the activity for her entire life. She uses this to portray her distaste of being a good girl, a good wife and a loving mother. Embroidery in itself is a calm activity, however, Bénitah uses it to show her anger and other strong emotions.

Image Analysis

In this photograph, Bénitah is about six years old and holding hands with her smiling brother, but an army of cockroaches surrounds the children, and their hands are bound together in a ball of red wool. Bénitah used a red wool to create the wool and black, for the surrounding cockroaches.

The photo itself is a simple, staged photograph, with natural lighting illuminating the young children’s faces. It is taken from an eye level view, however slightly above the children, indicating an adult took the photo. The area of focus is the bright red wool and it leads the viewers attention to the centre of the piece. The bright white outfits further bring the audience’s attention to the centre, as the white contrasts against the dull grey background. The photo has a shallow depth of field, further promoting the idea that it is an amateur photo, a family snapshot. Furthermore, the photo has a simple composition, the children simply being in the centre of the photo, the subject of the image. The cockroaches add a repetitive look to the photo, creating a representation of Bénitah’s feelings towards that moment. The bugs could be a portrayal of a threat, the wool signifying that her and her brother helped each other through everything. The innocent look on the children’s faces contrasts with the bold colours and shapes of the embroidery. The red wool could be a representation of love, the love she had for her brother which is what made them so close. Or it could be a portrayal of violence or even blood, perhaps suggesting that they were simply close due to a problem in the world or because they are family (the idea of being connected by blood). It’s interesting how Bénitah in cooperates such strong emotions into simple photographs, softening these harsh emotions by creating beautiful embroidery with her needle. At the time, (mid-1900s) society was based on very traditional values. Growing up in a traditional, catholic, Moroccan household clearly positioned Bénitah to grow up and become your typical women. Her pieces are a representation of how she disagreed with this concept, and shows her anger through the manipulation of photos from her childhood.

“It’s like an exorcism. I pierce the paper until I have no more evil”

-Carolle Bénitah

This is one of Carolle Bénitah’s most significant quotes, since it portrays the thought that goes into her work. She uses the needle to embroider her anger into the work, instead of keeping it bottled up inside. This is very inspiring, and I like the idea of conveying emotions through embroidery, both on new and old photos.

Carolle Bénitah’s link to Nostalgia

“I selected snapshots because they are linked to memory and loss”

-Carolle Bénitah

I think Carolle Bénitah’s work has a big link to nostalgia, however she shows both the negative and positive aspects of it through her art. She uses the embroidery as a healing ritual and calm her inner child. She also feels a mix of emotions when looking at the photos, which I think represents nostalgia perfectly, as I don’t think nostalgic feelings have to be completely positive.