Editing Memory

From the NY Times,Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory. Quite startling new research being done on memory, which could change the way we deal with traumatic events. The drug allowing the editing of these memories may only be a few years away but what are the implications? if we experience something and it makes us who we are but that experience is taken away aren't we changing who we are?

best quote from the article comes at the end:

Yet as scientists begin to climb out of the dark foothills and into the dim light, they are now poised to alter the understanding of human nature in ways artists and writers have not.

Which also brings up the question are memories reliable enough to be edited in the first place? Recent research indicates that memory is more slippery that we would like to believe. In a study I am reading for research into a new project written by New Zealand researchers, Maryanne Garry, Matthew P. Gerrie titled, When Photographs Create False Memories they argue that memory itself can be fabricated. So, how will these new drugs know whet they are deleting 'real' memories or faked or fantasy memories? and what of these memories contribute to who you are?

New images of the aftermath of assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr found.

Photo: Henry Groskinsky./Time & Life Pictures, Apr 04, 1968
Caption: Bill Campbell, alone on the motel balcony, gazing out into the night. "This photograph was probably made almost as soon as we got there, because there were a lot of people milling about in the dark, and then all of a sudden it cleared up. When I saw him standing there, alone, I thought to myself, 'Wow.' This isn't a posed picture. He's in deep pain, standing there by himself, as if asking, 'My God, what has happened here?'"

In an astonishing find, newly discovered historical photographs of the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr have recently resurfaced and published on Life magazine's new online archive.

The iconic image below is all that used to represent the history of that day. Now there is a little more of what happened from another LIFE photographer. I'm taken with the mood of Groskinsky's night images, the solemn images of the Lorraine Motel a quiet meeting taking place inside while a lone motel worker does the dirty work and cleans up the blood of the fallen hero.

Dr. Martin Luther King assassination, Memphis,Tenn., April 4, 1968; Photograph by Joseph Louw

This revealing of history through photography is discussed in one of that many essays on the new The Smithsonian Photography Initiative website: click! Photography Changes Everything, which is amassing quite a strong collection of thought on photography. This particular essay, PHOTOGRAPHY CHANGES OUR PERSPECTIVE ON HISTORICAL EVENTS was written about the 1925 Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial.

The 2009 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize goes to Paul Graham

©Paul Graham, Untitled (Pittsburgh 1), From the series "a shimmer of possibility," 2004, Pigment ink print

I think The Photographers' Gallery made the right choice here. I like all the nominees this year but British/American Photographer Paul Graham's "a shimmer of possibility" is just a bit more successful for me and a bit more current / new. A few nights ago Paul Graham was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and the £30K that accompanies it.

From the press release (PDF):

Paul Graham (b. 1956, UK), has been awarded the 2009 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize.

The Award was presented at a special evening ceremony on Wednesday 25 March 2009. Jefferson Hack, co-founder of Dazed & Confused, presented the £30,000 award.

The Prize is presented by The Photographers' Gallery and sponsored by Deutsche Borse group.

Paul Graham was selected by the Jury for his publication, a shimmer of possibility (steidlMACK, October 2007).

Now in its thirteenth year, this annual Prize of £30,000 rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution to photography in Europe, through either an exhibition or publication, over the past year.

The other shortlisted artists in this year's Prize, each awarded £3,000, are:

Emily Jacir (b.1970, Palestine) nominated for her installation, Material for a Film, presented at the 2007 Venice Biennale (7 June - 21 November 2007).

Tod Papageorge (b.1940, USA) nominated for the exhibition Passing Through Eden - Photographs of Central Park at Michael Hoppen Gallery, London (7 March - 12 April 2008).

Taryn Simon (b.1975, USA) nominated for her exhibition An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar at The Photographers' Gallery, London (13 September -11 November 2007).

The Jury this year: David Campany (writer/lecturer, University of Westminster, UK); David Goldblatt (photographer, South Africa); Chus Martinez (Chief Curator, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain); and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Borse, Germany). The Director of The Photographers' Gallery, Brett Rogers is the non-voting Chair.

© Paul Graham, Untitled (New York/North Dakota), From the series "a shimmer of possibility," 2005, Pigment ink prints, 15 pieces, Edition of 5 + 2 a.p.

© Paul Graham, "a shimmer of possibility," 2005

I like how the book and the photography installation work with each other. Each is similar but changes to fit the ideal conditions for viewing. The 12 Book collection (photo-eye was too expensive for me but there is a compiled version on its way in April.

This is quite a year for Graham with solo shows at MoMA, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany Greenberg Van Doren Gallery and Salon94 currently up, and now this award.

Check out this interview with Paul Graham and PDN here. There is also an article in the Telegraph