Pulled Back is the final project for my photography degree.
Content Warning: Rape
This project visualizes the way memories can permeate our daily lives at unexpected times and draw us into the past. The memories pictured here draw me back into some very painful and traumatic but at times beautiful memories of high school. Often, images and feelings pop into my head for little to no reason and I am sucked back to where I was four years ago. While I was at boarding school, I was raped and, unsurprisingly, was not taken seriously by the administration when I reported it. The community I had come to love and trust split between those who believed me and those who didn’t and sadly, this experience is pretty common. However, I also have beautiful memories from this community. I want to show this contrast of emotions and how they are a part of my current life with this project.
All of the inlaid images are photographs I took while in boarding school with the outer photographs from my daily life in Asheville and New York. I wanted to show how these images pop up in a way that is sometimes more real than the present. Creating these photographs was difficult for me but they portray how it feels to be pulled from the present into the past. While creating these pieces, I decided to use photographs of the person who assaulted me. The images with blurred faces are of him while the unblurred ones are of friends and myself.
Wangechi Mutu stated that “an artist is a healer: first they heal themselves then they try bit by bit to heal others.” My goal with these pieces is to continue to heal myself and hopefully work towards healing others.
Content Warning: Rape
This project visualizes the way memories can permeate our daily lives at unexpected times and draw us into the past. The memories pictured here draw me back into some very painful and traumatic but at times beautiful memories of high school. Often, images and feelings pop into my head for little to no reason and I am sucked back to where I was four years ago. While I was at boarding school, I was raped and, unsurprisingly, was not taken seriously by the administration when I reported it. The community I had come to love and trust split between those who believed me and those who didn’t and sadly, this experience is pretty common. However, I also have beautiful memories from this community. I want to show this contrast of emotions and how they are a part of my current life with this project.
All of the inlaid images are photographs I took while in boarding school with the outer photographs from my daily life in Asheville and New York. I wanted to show how these images pop up in a way that is sometimes more real than the present. Creating these photographs was difficult for me but they portray how it feels to be pulled from the present into the past. While creating these pieces, I decided to use photographs of the person who assaulted me. The images with blurred faces are of him while the unblurred ones are of friends and myself.
Wangechi Mutu stated that “an artist is a healer: first they heal themselves then they try bit by bit to heal others.” My goal with these pieces is to continue to heal myself and hopefully work towards healing others.