I Have Photos Therefore I Am

My grandfather was an amateur photographer who used his view camera as a portable laboratory. When I was about 8, I became his “assistant”, which only meant to hold a leg of his tripod. I recall those moments in which I was the subject photographed, then showing me a piece of paper still soaked with fixer and he would tell me: “This is you”.

That statement which seemed more than obvious at the time, began to gain significance as the years passed. My grandfather is gone and I am unable to clearly remember what I experienced in the past. So now to remember who I am, I need to look at that picture and then I can state: “That’s me”.

When we look at a photograph related to our experiences, our intangible and unreliable memories surrender to the printed image. The concrete photographs replace our abstract memories and our identity is certified by that set of photographs.

Some time ago, a friend gave us some negatives he had found in the trash. After scanning them, we found they were family portraits taken about 40 years ago by an amateur photographer. All shared a common feature: they were underexposed, so it was really hard to recognize the people pictured.
The family could be any one. Those moments, that formed part of the photographer’s identity, could also be ours. So, we decided to use our own photographs along with the anonymous ones, unifying all of them using the same printing process and thus, generating the identity and memories of someone who never existed.

 

About the photographer

Although the images are sent under a single name, we would like to point out that we are two photographers working together. We have always signed our work using our surnames: 
Albarrán Cabrera

Anna Cabrera and Angel Albarrán are a couple and have been working together in photography for more than seventeen years. The work of Anna Cabrera and Angel Albarrán has been exhibited in Spain, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.

Anna Cabrera was born in Sevilla, Spain, in 1969. She is a photographer and a teacher, who is currently based in Barcelona, Spain. 
Anna earned her B.A. in English Philology from the University of Seville in 1992.
Angel Albarrán was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1969. He is a photographer and curator, who is currently based in Barcelona, Spain. 
Angel earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering in 1994 from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and he specialized in Mathematics at the University of Barcelona.

Website: www.albarrancabrera.com