Key points/and my thoughts

David Bate Essay

The Memory of Photography
This paper addresses the specific contribution that the invention of photography has
made to relation of memory and history.(Quote David Bate: The Memory of Photography
Vol 3 P.243)
Photography is always and has always (or so I believe) been up for re-definition as its role
in society is forever changing.
Photography archives are a very big thing, special software has been created for this and
the extremes of archiving can be from using this software to something as simple as a
family album types of memory banks (Quote David Bate: The Memory of Photograph
Vol 3 P.243)..
Bates states that in domestic culture, photograph conventionally has a place as a time
machine, a device for remembering(The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.243); this
statement is an accurate one,(in my opinion) when we go on holiday with our children,
when we take them for their first day at school these pictures are taken, not just for
those that werent there to witness this moment but they are there so that you (or the
child) can go back and revisit this moment.
Bates asks the question what did photography do for memory and what contribution has
photography made to the practice of memory in human culture?(Quote David Bate: The
Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.243)
As I go through this essay and highlight Bates points, his views (and mine) will be
explained on this matter; however I do believe that this question does leave an opening
for some direct reflection:
Some could say that we are now so flooded with imagery that it could almost create
laziness in this part of our mind with the use of mobile phones we can now record any
moment we want whenever we want, these images (with the uses of computers, laptops,
tablets and phones etc..) can be sent to only one person or can be shown to thousands of
people are these ever even looked at again? Regardless of how often people look at
their thousands of photographs the point is that whenever they want they can go back
and look at it, yes it could be said that they dont have to remember because its being
done for them, but this is looking at life in the immediate moment and life isnt like that
and its short sighted. These photographs are windows into our lives and our past and the
past of our parents, grandparents etc... These photographs remind us or they open our
eyes to something we didnt know just by being present and being seen, something that
cant be offered by other mediums such as paintings (for example).
Bates asks Has photography affected or changed the constitution of individual or
collective memory (Quote David Bate: The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.244).
Bates decides for the moment to drift away from photography and look into another
starting point so that we can return back to the subject of photography with a different
mind-set; he takes us to look into the memory, and starts with a quote from Freud.
Bates highlights a distinction that Freud makes in a quote (from Thy Mystic WritingPad429)(The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.244)
Natural memory normal human capacity of recollection
Artificial memory the array of technical devices invented by humans to support their
natural (mnemic) ability to inscribe things to memory.

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When man invented writing way back in history it was his way of retaining thoughts that
he had already thought and this was the beginning of the artificial memory as we know
it (unless you include cave man drawings) the thing that makes an impression on Freud is
how these artificial memory devices that we keep creating are mimics/ interpretations
on the organs that each of us possess.
Freud: In the photographic camera he has created an instrument which retains the
fleeting visual impressions. (Quote Freud Civilization and its Discontents in David
Bates Essay The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.244); if we chose to agree with Freud
and his theories on replicating our natural senses then what is it that our memory gets
out of the development of this photographic device(s)? Or even how does it suffer
because of this?
Some could say that our memories could be manipulated by these modern devices that
they take the true account we hold in our minds and replace it with one moment that got
captured, that it distorts what we remember, the camera captures one moment within
thousands of moments what happens between the moments the camera doesnt show
you, because of the image and seeing the image this could highlight just this one
occurrence and your mind could be manipulated and ignore the missing pieces.
Some, such as Derrida, wonder if the mind can hold onto its current status, with the
modern changes surrounding us in the world of technology can the mind can resist
evolution or does it change as a side effect of our progress. The question is whether
these external technologies affect the inside mental space(David Bates Quote
(interpretation): The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.245)
Discussions on how devices can impact us are not new they have been in debated since
at least 1930; two examples on who discussed these topic: Walter Benjamin and
Siegfried Kracauer.
It is said in this essay that the work of Siegfried is less known however I do not think that
means that his opinions are not shared by others (if they took the time to think on this
subject that is). At the beginning of this written work I have included this quote:
Bates states that in domestic culture, photograph conventionally has a place as a time
machine, a device for remembering (The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.243);
Bates believes that photographys place (or one of them) is that of a time machine and
this is something that Siegfried echos he compares photography (and film) to the work
of historiography: these practices all have historical narrative as a common denominator,
he argues, which bonds their respective aims together. Such instances of thinking about
photography as memory also belong to a much longer history and theory of memory
devices.(David Bates: The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.245).
A COLLECTIVE MEMORY
Bates furthers this thought by introducing the French historian Jacques Le Goff and his
work on History and Memory, this book (notes) explains where archives begin in history
and how long they have truly existed and what they consisted of; they are much the
same as they are now, starting (around) the second millennium before Christ(Quote
Bates/Goff: The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.246/History and Memory) this is where
our most traditional archives came from: Libraries, museums and actual archives (some
sort of filing system?). As a human race we evolve and progress and with it the systems
around us do the same, and this is how we came to have a public means to archive our
memories.
The dangers of this collective memory is its vulnerability to be manipulated by those in
charge; although moments of history cant be deleted from our minds, they can be readdressed and re-written by the way people approach the passing of that moment. In Le
Goffs opinion this manipulation took place after the French revolution, by creating
commemorative dates for moments in history (the revolution 1789) they withdrew the

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graphic gruesome details of what occurred from peoples memories. Le Goff argues that
there is a danger to over remembering, could it be that being over exposed to the dates
and occurrences that it feels less real, less important and just a thing of the past, that
people become nonchalant?
In the 18th and 19th Century commemorating becomes more elaborate and more
common; people start to find more ways to remember for example: Stamps, coins and
medals. However the bar rises even further than this in the middle of the nineteenth
century, a new wave of statuary, a new civilization of inscriptions (monuments, street
signs, commemorative plaques on the houses of famous people) floods Europe.(Le Goff
Quote: Found in: David Bates Essay The Memory of Photography Vol 3 P.246).
This is a strange era, Le Goff says, In which politics, sensibilities and folklore mingle.
(Quote: David Bates/Le Goff The memory of Photography Vol 3 P.246) Goff also points
out two particular contributions to the collective memory one of which are monuments
this I believe he means statues of those significant to our history which are erected
after their death, he also names photography as significant; Photography offers
something that painting never could, this is a visual time line, one that isnt drawn and
from an artist that could paint anything, but from a camera that records what it sees.
The offering of this kind of insight into our collective history, our past is an important
contribution to us ones that visually show us how life was before, how things were
created, who was present and where. Photography doesnt replace written records but
they do give them imagery which potentially gives more substance to what we read and
more confidence in its accuracy (whether this is wrong or right).
Bates moves further into Goffs thoughts on photography as a memory device and talks
of its place within our more domestic environment the family; Goff draws on a quote
from Photography: A middle-brow Art (translated title) which discusses the sociology of
domestic photography (The memory of Photography P.247)
Relevant Quotes
To photograph ones children is to make oneself the historiographer of their childhood,
and to create for them, as a sort of inheritance, the image of what they have been.
The images of the past arranged in chronological order, the natural order of social
memory, arouse and transmit the remembrance of events worthy of preservation
because the group sees a unifying factor.
That is why there is nothing more decent, more reassuring, or more edifying than a
family album.
(Quote found in: David Bates Essay: The Memory of Photography P.247, Quoted by Le
Goff, Quote written by Pierre Bourdieu in Un Art Moyen)
There is discussion about the significance of whom takes the image, mother or father and
its relevance.
If the mother takes the role of photographer in the family and her presences is lacking on
the right side of the camera, that doesnt mean the presence is not present at all, the
lack of presence is significant enough to raise memories of that occasion and of who took
the image and then raises further memories from our minds archives ones that are a
part of our past and a part of our story; if photographs are memory aids, then it isnt just
about the people that are in the photograph but what could be as equally important are
those that arent.
The lack of presence of mum could very possibly be turned into a mass debate; I do think
that it speaks of the times and speaks of the social structure of the many if not
everyone; a normal structure would be dad working every hour and mum at home
raising the kids and running the house, so when days out where had, holidays or special
meals then it would be dad in the image with the kids because those times would be so

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rare were as mum was inundated with memories (in her mind and her everyday life) with
the kids and their special moments.
The images created within the family (whomever they are taken by, and whatever type of
family it is) can help capture those moments that to our memory to our mind, are lost.
Jacques Derrida in Archive Fever states something that I believe as much as I think
Bates does It is a question of the future, the question of the future itself, the question of
a response, a promise and of a responsibility of tomorrow.(Quote found in David Bates
Essay: The Memory of Photography P.248, Written by Jacques Derrida in Archive Fever).
Photographs are one of the most important technological inventions for Jacques Le Goff
because photography is the machine that industrializes visual memory.
From coins to theatres, from writing to monuments, the camera can record them
all.(Two above Quotes: David Bates: The Memory of Photography P.248)
The cameras ability to take photographs of any visual object and make it into a
permanent image depicting the truth, the facts, has been known since its birth and the
potential for the camera and what it can do has been near limitless; which is why
photographys place in the world is forever changing when another technological
device can take its place in one element of photography, then it finds another approach
and another gap in the market.
The ability to record for archives and for explanations has/was been desired by many,
and when its invention came there where many that could see its potential and how it
could serve their countries in a very useful way; Dominique Francois Aragos was one of
those, he knew that the camera would have served a great purpose if they had been in
possession of one when they had travelled to Egypt for an expedition without such a
device to record and store images from this moment, the country were deprived from
pictorial, factual evidence and could only use imaginations and written journals to go
back to, and this was Aragos argument when suggesting they invest in this piece of
modern equipment.
Since its invention photography and its evolving capabilities from the beginning of its
invention has meant that so many objects, expeditions, monuments, historical
developments and family moments have been captured for personal memories,
collective memories, for archival purposes; with this device we are able to remember so
many things and to be told so many stories we werent present for, we are to remember
the lost that we never got the chance to meet and look right into their eyes, we are able
to hold visual accounts of our evolution through time.
When I talk above about its strengths, these strengths can sometimes be missed
because people can be short sighted and only live in the now and not in the future, when
those that were not there at an event or occasion how can they possibly remember its
impossible which is when the argument that these images can affect our memories is
irrelevant (Michel Foucault for example had this belief about the effect on our popular
memory.)
How we hold and store memories according to Freud works in a certain way called
perception-consciousness; receives perceptions but retains no permanent trace of
them, so that it can react like a clean sheet to every new perception; while the
permanent traces of the excitation which have been received are preserved in mnemic
systems lying behind the perceptual system.(Found in David Bates Essay: The Memory
of Photography P.252 from Quote: The Mystic Writing Pad 430)
The mnemic-traces are left in different systems, the conscious-preconscious and the
unconscious. However, there are no memories, as such, in the unconscious (since it has
no concept of time or reality, it is not a type of historical record) (Quote David Bates
Essay: The Memory of Photography P.252)

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Memory, in the everyday use of the word, is located in the preconscious: Memory that
we can recall at will (or after a bit of searching) and bring into consciousness (Quote
David Bates Essay: The Memory of Photography P.252)
In other words, preconscious memory also means a temporary forgetting so that
consciousness has space for the constant new receptions and experiences. (Quote
David Bates Essay: The Memory of Photography P.252)
These four short quotes are important to have just as they are written to understand the
process of the memory (in Freuds opinion of course).
Freud has much to say about the childhood memory and how it works, and how our
mind can also work with the memory to shield us from significant memories. It is
clear to us and to Freud that a childs memory is not always as it seems that memories
could be layered from several events, that they could be altered, that they could be
repressed (for one reason or another), that they could have been distorted after learning
new information. (In formation acquired from David Bates Essay: The Memory of
Photography P.253)
Freud: Fairy tales, he says, can be made use of as screen memories in the same kind of
way that empty shells are used as a home by the hermit crab. These fairy takes then
become favourites, without the reason being known.(Found in David Bates Essay: The
Memory of Photography P.253: Quote Freud Child hood memories and screen
memories)
Medical Definition of screen memory. :
A recollection of early childhood that may be falsely recalled or magnified in importance
and that masks another memory of deep emotional significance.
(Found Via Google: Screen Memory | Definition of Screen memory by Merriam ...www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/screen%20memory)

All of these quotes are important to get right in order for the next part of David Bates
essay to make sense.
Bates believes that the same may apply to photographs, that they make work as an
empty shell for our favourite childhood story that a particular photograph can hold
the ignition to spark old memories.
Bates goes on further to suggest that we can have an involuntary reaction to a
photograph; an image that when we look closer doesnt actually show us what we see
within it that it takes us back to another moment in time; Bates compares Screen
Memories and photographs and explains how they can work in a similar fashion, how for
both of them we cannot always remember the original moment that it happened but it
does bring forward an involuntary memory. (This information was found and re-written
from David Bates Essay: The Memory of Photography P.254)
With photographs, memory is both fixed and fluid: social and personal. There is nothing
neutral here. As sites of memory, photographic images (whether digital or analogue)
offer not a view on history but, as mnemic devices, are perceptual phenomena upon
which a historical representation may be constructed.(Quote David Bates: The Memory
of Photography P.255-P.256)
In conclusion, photographs are like gateways to memories and to history; they are not
complete factual representations but they give enough information to allow for us to go
back to another time and continue from there to build a picture they need analysis as
with memories and cannot be taken literally but they (photographs) are an important
part of our lives and open doorways to other peoples lives, to our own, and history that
we wouldnt be able to get to in the same way with just paintings/drawings or written
journals.

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