Faculty of Art

Photography

Paul Amaral

Faded Dreams

Faded Dreams is a series of mixed media works centered around my relationship with acquiring 20th-century found photography. In collecting these photographs, I was faced with the fact that there was much I didn't know of the images or the people in them. I began to think of how the subject matter of each photograph was aspired for by its original owner, and how all of that meaning and purposeful connection that had existed for them is now lost on me. Reflecting on moments that have long passed, viewers of each found photograph can only get so much from what has been preserved. As a result, the subject matter is forced to take on new life amongst present viewers. Through abstraction, this series plays with the idea of missing information and how a photograph’s meaning can change through ownership, as well as time, as a means of emphasizing that loss. Simultaneously, the work preserves each beautiful moment that was once cared for on a personal level, allowing for them to continue, rather than being lost to time.