Fictional Memories

My father died many years ago, shortly before the moon landing he had longed to see. I was only a small child at the time and my memories of him are few and sporadic.

He had children late in his life and the span between the two of us is long. He is old enough that the movies he saw as a kid were silent. At work he designed aircraft using a slide rule, and at home he paid the bills using an abacus. By the time I was born he had already lived a full life, one that I only know through passed down photographs that have lost the narrative thread. He is in many ways a stranger.

I am older now, retired, and older than he ever lived to be. In this series I use AI to time travel and insert myself into photos from his early life, from before I was born. I’m photobombing my dad. I am a spy, and I go in disguise.

So, who is this man? Through these images I am witness to his entire span and am afforded the measure of a life. I can see myself as a literal reflection of him and I cannot help but to compare and even to judge, whether I want to or not. How much am I this man who I barely knew?

And finally, I do this project with some trepidation. These photos are not real. What you see did not happen because I was not there. They are a fiction. By using AI to alter the original images I corrupt the archive along with my own fragile memories.