Misunderstanding Memory Photography Exhibition

$450.00 ~ $3600.00

The signed, framed photographs are printed on the exceptional heavy-weight, Epson Hot Press exhibition paper using archival inks. They are mounted on archival backer boards & mats and use the glare-resistant museum art glass. Lastly, the photographs are surrounded by a black, wooden frame.

Each photograph from the Misunderstanding Memories exhibition is a limited edition of 6 prints. There will be no more editions printed. 

The first 3 prints of an edition are $450.00. The last 3 double in price for each print. (The 4th print is $900.00, the 5th print is $1800.00 and the last print is $3600.00)

Sold photographs have red stickers. One sticker means one photograph has sold, two stickers means two photographs have sold etc. 

Click here for the Exhibition Store

Artist Statement

Misunderstanding Memory

A solo photography exhibition exploring the process and inaccuracy of our memories

by photographer Caley Taylor

Featured as part of the 2022 Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival at the Leslie Grove Gallery, 1158 Queen Street East, Toronto.

The way we behave and interact with others is based on our past experiences and the stories we tell from our memories. Our memories are hazy, subjective constructs. Every time we conjure up a memory, it is re-saved in our brains, slightly differently. Most memories cannot be fully trusted.  

Have you ever had a disagreement with a friend or family member about a childhood or past experience? Each of you having a totally separate story? How do you know you aren’t the one embellishing facts? “You don’t!”, explains Malcolm Gladwell in an episode of his podcast, Revisionist History, “Our minds are funny that way. They are totally fallible.”

If 5 different people took a photograph of the same scene, at the same time, it would be recorded differently 5 times. The same is for memory. We may be at the same event, right beside each other, but our brains will record different snippets of time and blend them together with our life experiences to create a memory.  The difference between the film photograph and the memory, is that the photograph is absolutely accurate. The memory is questionable.  

The psychologist Daniel Schacter describes the process of memory making, “We now know that we do not record our experiences the way a camera records them. Our memories work differently. We extract key elements from our experiences and store them. We then re-create or reconstruct our experiences rather than retrieve copies of them. Sometimes, in the process of reconstructing, we add on feelings, beliefs, or even knowledge we obtained after the [initial memory] experience. In other words, we bias our memories of the past by attributing to them emotions or knowledge we acquired after the [initial memory] event.”

Leslie Grove Gallery photographs by David Johns (above pictures of the space)

In my exploration of memory, I realized film negatives absolutely speak the truth. While developing the negatives, the light-sensitive silver halide crystals are converted with chemicals into metallic silver and become concrete documentations of a moment in time. This is the opposite of digital photographs (and memories) which are susceptible to filters or photoshop changes and distortions. 

My exhibition photographs begin as film in my old Pentax 35mm ME Super camera or my 6x6 Bronica medium format camera. The negatives are then developed in my darkroom where I deliberately make mistakes for imperfect results.  Once developed, I re-photograph the negatives using my digital camera, again looking for flaws. The final images are printed on the beautiful, heavy-weight, Epson Hot Press exhibition paper with Epson archival inks. The intentional defects create exciting distortions, strange depth-of-field and window-framed images, which are my attempts to conceptualize a memory. My photographs are intentionally imperfect because memories are far from perfect recordings of our past events. Memories fade, recede, change, become embellished and disappear completely when we pass.  

“You can not wholly trust them [memories].”, states Malcolm Gladwell in an interview about his podcast. “One of the most important things memory researchers will tell you is that you can not confuse confidence with accuracy. In other words, the fact that I am absolutely certain that what happened, happened, is not a reliable guide to accuracy.”.  

So, let’s be kind to our friends and family by acknowledging our faulty minds. We all have differing interpretations of our past experiences and we all mistakenly recall events, but this is normal. Memory distortions are part of being a human. Be forgiving and gentle with each other. All we can do is try to live as peacefully as possible in the present moment and hopefully enjoy each others embellished stories from our unique and one-of-a-kind journey.

By Caley Taylor

Leslie Grove Gallery

1158 Queen Street East, Toronto ~ (416) 465 - 0302

OPEN ~ Wednesday to Sunday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm

BY APPOINTMENT ~ Tuesdays

CLOSED ~ Mondays

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Fernyhough, Charles, Pieces of Light : How the New Science of Memory Illuminates the Stories We Tell About Our Pasts (Great Britain: Harper Perennial, 2012)

Gladwell, Malcolm, (Host) (2016-present) Revisionist History [Audio Podcast]. Pushkin Industries. https://www.pushkin.fm/show/revisionist-history/

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