STATEMENT

Upon reminiscing about my childhood, I felt a growing of disconnection from my past. One day as I was rummaging through old family albums and home video recordings, I found a leather folder filled with drawings by my little self: a girl with whom I longed so eagerly to reconnect.

I started this photo series as a quest for finding that little girl. I began looking for her in all the places that hold my most cherished memories from childhood, and I took photographs of all of those places. This process allowed me to connect with my past in an intimate way.

However, it also made me realize that those places do not exist anymore. At least not in the way they did when my little self was there. And no matter where I looked, she was not there to be found. The places had warped into something else, and they all began to look black and white, so that is exactly how I printed the photos I had taken.

In an attempt to revitalize the places, I traced the childhood drawings I had found earlier onto the photographs. In this way, not only was I tracing the steps of my little self and thus becoming closer to finding her, but I was also combining the two layers of past and present in each photograph. Finally, I used crayons, pencils, and markers to color the pictures in a way that represents how I used to see the places before. The making of this photo series allowed me to channel a childish sense of spontaneity that I felt like I had lost, and to finally find who I was looking for within: the little self.