Revisiting Past Exposures by Matthew Terry

Matthew Terry will display his photography through June 4. 

Revisiting Past Exposures is inspired by the idea that when you see a place an image of it is created in your mind, and until revisiting this location you view it as your mind previously saw it. Sometimes upon returning you realize things aren't quite as you remembered, and these two sections of time don’t blend so smoothly into one another. My project attempts to recreate this experience through presenting handheld printed images aligned with modern scenes. This is an experience I feel most people can relate to. This project is equal parts final product, preparation, and process, placing great significance on the time that passes between shooting the first image, making a physical print, and then aligning this print for the final “present day” image.

While these photographs tend to be shot within relative close proximity to where I live, the time between the two aligned shots can span months and even years. This documents the combination of my own past and present experiences, and challenges me to relate the two in order to present this idea to the viewer through my images.

Furthermore I like to keep a level of individual interpretation in my work, and I want my viewers to experience the work aesthetically, yet still take more from the deeper meaning. I want the viewer to reflect on the relationship between the past and the present, seeing how powerful the human mind is at creating a defined image of a place, and how until revisiting that location our perception of it ceases to be changed; commenting on the way we compare the past and present, and how it often takes witnessing the past in a present perspective to understand how familiar yet beautifully different it appears in relation.