Ghost Trap I
3 slide projectors, 3 frosted glasses
Variable dimensions 5 x 5 meters approx.
2022
Carra Clément Chéroux, in his book on the The photographic error that, in 1981, Leon Wulff, editor of Progrès photographique, received a letter from an amateur named Ratelade, who described the difficulty of erasing images from glass plates when they no longer interested him. At the time, negatives were made manually and reusing them was common. Ratelade used solvents to remove the emulsion, but faint traces always remained. Confident that these "ghosts" would not affect new shots, he decided to ignore them. However, these presences became more visible than expected, drastically altering the new image. He had created a ghost trap.
Inspired by this story, I decided to explore my own ghost traps, evoking a past time and the unexpected way in which memory surprises us. I used suspended milky glass on which I projected childhood portraits that, due to humidity, had acquired a whitish layer. The projection allowed the image to be seen from both sides, hoping that at some point, the back would recover its original appearance. In the montage, these traps generated new images on the wall, even more blurred and distant, which moved and intertwined with the slightest movement. The sound of the projectors created a nostalgic and provocative atmosphere.