Natasha Stanbridge and Trevor Taylor

Work exhibited: Video Piece
Video Collaboration about London and Zagreb

“We took inspiration from "On Photography" by Susan Sontag and particularly from the comment she makes on the Chris Marker film ‘Si j’avais quatre dromandaires’. The montage of our video is similar to the Marker’s one: a variety of different themed still photographs, each still being displayed on the screen for a different duration. Sontag comments, “Both the order and exact time for looking at each photograph are imposed and there is a gain of visual legibility & emotional impact.”
In our piece each still was shown for such a short duration that it could be said that one cannot engage with a particular image therefore could not endorse emotional detachment.
The video was primarily looking at the memory of the trip and the way in which our memories are reduced to a series of stills rather than that of moving image. In an interview for the Boston review Sontag says, “Each memory from one's childhood, or from any period that's not in the immediate past, is like a still photograph rather than a strip of film. And photography has objectified this way of seeing and remembering.”
We also used three different sounds experienced of our travels through Zagreb and the sounds gave the stills an individual character, and gave rhythm and emotion to what the spectator saw."