The affinity between photography and memory is rather axiomatic: We take photos to preserve our memories. This formulation considers photographs as aide-mémoire and photography as a mnemotechnique.... Show moreThe affinity between photography and memory is rather axiomatic: We take photos to preserve our memories. This formulation considers photographs as aide-mémoire and photography as a mnemotechnique. Such a basic analogy, however, falls short in explaining the spatiotemporality and materiality of photography and overlooks the mediated aspects of memory in narrating the past. The difficulty with describing the conjunction of memory and photography lies in the fact that neither of them has a static essence: Both remembering and photography are inherently dynamic processes. While for some the photograph simply is a representational image that embodies past events, for others the photograph’s materiality and social uses are equally crucial in the way it continually reshapes our memories. In addition, debates on “prosthetic memory,” “postmemory,” and trauma have already shown how photography plays a role in the disembodied, transgenerational, and retroactive operations of memory work. To classify diverse approaches toward memory and photography without ignoring the dynamic aspects of either of them, this entry is divided into two parts: “conceiving photography through memory” and “perceiving memory through photography.” While the first section explains how the medium of photography has been historically defined via its approaches to memory and remembrance, the second section shows how some salient views on memory are largely founded on photographic lexicons and metaphors. Among others, the first part draws on the work of thinkers such as Siegfried Kracauer, Roland Barthes, and Elizabeth Edwards, and the second part discusses the work of Sigmund Freud, Marianne Hirsch, and Ulrich Baer. Show less
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been subjected to involuntary quarantines, thus inevitably experiencing social isolation. Such an experience, however, is nothing new to a Hikikomori. ... Show moreDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been subjected to involuntary quarantines, thus inevitably experiencing social isolation. Such an experience, however, is nothing new to a Hikikomori. This Japanese term refers to the phenomenon of acute social withdrawal as well as to the person who undergoes such self-imposed seclusion. To reflect on the lived life of a Hikikomori, this chapter examines a recent photographic project called Goodbye Without Leaving (2021). In this commemorative photo research, Atle Blekastad reconstructs from his memories the room in which his brother, who had been a Hikikomori for over 20 years, took his life in 2012. To examine this photograph, the chapter first unpacks the recent sociocultural research on hikikomori to underline the causes and factors that may induce such a societal retreat. Afterward, it employs Bachelard’s method of “topo-analysis” and Casey’s notion of “place memory” to shed light on the conjunction of memory and place. Finally, by drawing on the Nietzschean notion of “eternal return” and Deleuze’s and Cadava’s reinterpretations of this temporal concept, the chapter argues that Goodbye Without Leaving embodies the lived life of Hikikomori as an endless expansion of place and a boundless cessation of time. Show less
In March 2020, due to the exponential increase in the number of coronavirus cases outside China, the director of World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the outbreak could be characterized... Show moreIn March 2020, due to the exponential increase in the number of coronavirus cases outside China, the director of World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the outbreak could be characterized as a pandemic. Having now taken the lives of approximately 5.8 million people just two years after that announcement, the COVID-19 pandemic is still causing physical and mental suffering across the globe. If the ongoing pandemic has exposed one thing over the past two years, it is our vulnerability to pain; not only to physical pain but also to psychological pain. It has exposed the fact that all humans, regardless of their sex, race, class, or their social, political, and economic status, are susceptible to conditions like anxiety and depression. As established by recent cross-disciplinary research, since the beginning of the pandemic the number of people suffering from depression and anxiety has been continually on the rise across different continents (Rudenstine et al. 2020; Twenge and Joiner 2020; Özdin and Özdin 2020; Palgi et al. 2020; Alyami et al. 2020; Choi et al. 2020; Dozois 2021). Although the increasing pervasiveness of depression and anxiety is a present-day phenomenon, mental disorders are nothing new. They were described and treated in ancient Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC (Nejat and Rhea 1998). Being oblivious to their causes and roots, Mesopotamians would consider mental disorders as “hands” of specific deities taking control over a person, thus deeming them as metaphysical interventions in one’s mind. While one particular condition was known as “hand of Ishtar,” another one was known as “hand of Shamash” (Black and Green 1992, 102). Show less
