s e n t i m e n t a l i s m:

a collection of holga photography by kenny morrison

I was raised in California on the cusp of the digital age. As a kid, there were no home computers and the events of my childhood were documented on film–super 8 and still photographs. My little sister, however, will revisit her past quite differently. Her childhood memories will always be supplemented by a video library, which documents her every birthday and graduation shot on the much more reality-based capture medium of digital video. Her and I share similar pasts, but we’ll always have very different ways of physically looking back on them. How much more accurate will her memories be than mine?

The definition of the word ‘sentimental’ is: “Resulting from or colored by emotion rather than reason or realism.” I’d say that lacking concrete video documentation of my early childhood has made me pretty sentimental over the filmic images I see in my parents’ photo albums.

I actually don’t even have that many photos to look at. But I can recall in my mind a handful of early random memories that are nothing more than snapshots–just isolated, frozen images I’ve retained over the years but remember nothing more about. I’m finally framing some of those childhood images that resided only in my head. With a lot of my old memories, I remember the feeling but no exact image. Now I create the image to remember the feeling. 

I’m trying to get the viewer to perhaps recapture a memory they’ve practically forgotten, to feel that peculiar mixture of fondness and loss, which I assume everyone feels regarding their past.

Sentimentalism.

Kenny Morrison