Latent Visons 2.0
The work Latent Visions by Siân Hayden-Seymour uses the medium of photography to explore the The Latent Image alongside Freud’s ideas on Psychoanalysis. The content of the series establishes the riddle of resurrection through representations of events that only exist in the artist’s imagination. The method of long exposures and light painting have been strategically used alongside dormant images to create a balance between nostalgia and the unknown.
Further Writing - work in progress
The latent image defines a photograph either dormant or undeveloped. This notion runs in parallel to the concealed events in dreams only occurring in one’s imagination. Psychoanalysis challenges us and can be interpreted as a nostalgic riddle.
The act of interpreting dreams is primarily a theory based strategy towards an understanding of the subconscious mind. Photography that induces these two concepts is often a therapeutic way to question episodes revealed through one’s imagination. During this process, even though the images that occur post development may seem realistic, one will always chose to conceal elements making the reconstructions unauthentic. Equally, like the process of making a photograph. One will only ever see the finished product, not the entire course of action.
Photographs are fixed things and the human race has always been fascinated with the prospect of resurrection. The power of photography satisfies the longing for a memory to become eternal. Adverse to the act of recording a dream through the medium of photography, the photograph obstructs authentic memories. Thus, when a dream is remembered through an image, it goes on to be forgotten. The most remembered dreams are the concealed visions that have not yet been fixed as a photograph. One may believe that the act recording something improves memory. In this case it is not effective, resulting in a broken dream and a fixed image.
The fixed photograph is a finale, like the success of an inventors crusade to solve the unsatisfactory. Once a vision - now a photograph. Thus, the subconscious mind of the creator perpetually scans for the next potential image, as if one’s imagination personifies the camera’s lens. The artist’s dormant mind works in adjacent to the active human eye through all creative decisions. The quest is ongoing.