Detail of Curzon Exhibition (montage) - Feb 09

"I am sitting beside me" is a project realised through Westminster Arts Photographic Bursary 2008 and comprises an installation of eight big-size portraits of 94 year old Moysee set against her own old images, retracing long lost memories as well as more recent ones.

The project researches the impact of memories in a life and how old people classify their memories. Chronology is no longer important, while short-term memory fades, old events resurge and take a new transcendence. How much of a person is revealed through their memories, in their face, expression, display of emotion? Who are we without our memories?

Each project conveys a psychological charge relating to a different experience or period of her life as represented by the small images. These old photos acquire meaning through the portraits. An interdependency is created that the viewer can share. The mood and energy construct the narrative and establish a direct relationship. The use of a bold close-up and the size of print challenges the usual perception of old age, revealing its complexity.