In Black Family Polaroid Collection, 2014, I act as the caretaker and curator of my family’s small collection of photographs. I process and archive what I before could not in regards to our images and representations; there is love and life and happiness and sadness in each Polaroid. There is a 360-degree view of us. In the work, some of my family’s Polaroids are turned over so the back side is visible; those that face front are overlapped and only partially visible. The backs of the photographs show faint outlines of our fingertips, exposing the traces of our experiences and lives. Marks, smudges, stains, and scratches cover images of celebrations, holidays, and birthdays, revealing more than the actual image.
