︎︎︎ Lost + Found Archive

“Lost + Found Archive” is a project that was born purely out of chance in 2022. I was out in East London when I stumbled on a box full of old diapositives. A man was selling them at a street market, although they did not belong to him or his family. In facts, he barely seemed to remember how he came in possessions of those frames.

It is not clear whether the images belong to the same collection or if they were taken by the same people. A few of the diapositives present information such as the year when they were made or short descriptions on the borders of the frame, giving clues about their origins. Some of the pictures have elements in common, such as the kids playing.

The most common perception of what an archive is, is a grouping of materials that purposefully selected in order to be studied and made accessible. The first definition of “archives” endorsed by the Society of American Archivists focuses on “especially those materials maintained using the principles of provenance, original order, and collective control.”

I argue that this collection, despite the lack of a selective agent, can still be considered as an archive. In this case, time and chance become the archivists, and it’s up to the lucky collector to define a criteria and an order among the images.
The frames echo each other and the observer moves them and aligns them like pieces of a puzzle.

“Lost + Found Archive” reflects on the ideas of preservation, collection and selection of photographic material. Despite the memories on film belonging to somebody else, I felt responsible for their maintenance from the moment I picked them up. The emotional value added by the feeling of loss and nostalgia for unexperienced moments, people and places contributes to the analysis of the purpose of photographic archives as a healing source for collective memory.