Berlin: Mauer Park

This image is from a new series of hand-sewn photographs taken in Berlin. The series refers to the failures of photography in preserving experience and the means by which photographs transform history into nostalgic objects that obscure understandings of the past.

In the work, sections of the images have been obscured by cross-stitch embroidery sewn directly into the photograph. The embroidery deteriorates the original photograph and forms a pixelated version of the underlying image. With large areas of the photographs concealed by the embroidery, small, seemingly trivial details emerge, while the larger picture and context become erased. By having the embroidery take the visual structure of digital pixelation, a further connection is made between the human brain trying to retrieve information and digital storage.
At times, the embroidered parts of the image run along the horizon line forming an unnatural separation which blocks the viewer from the vantage point of the image. This aspect of the sewing emphasizes the unnatural boundaries created by the wall itself. The sewing, which is soft and domestic provides a literal contrast to the concrete of the wall and a metaphorical contrast to its symbolism.