Dear reader,
Its been a busy couple of months, so first off I’d like to apologize for the long time you haven’t heard from me. I’ve been attending lectures, visiting exhibitions, reading books, doing research for my thesis, you name it. (Yes, I’m still a student at the Sandberg Institute.)
I went to Brussels (Belgium) last weekend and at Tulips & Roses we joined a group discussion led by Pierre Bismuth. There were some very interesting stories in the discussion about hypnosis and about Bismuth’s current exhibition in Amsterdam at the Smart Project Space. We also visited Maastricht (Netherlands) and went to the Marres to visit an exhibition about the 1990’s, called Avant-Garde: Specters of the Nineties which was curated by one of the tutors of my academy; Lisette Smit. Great stuff, check it out if you’ve got the chance!
As I mentioned, the past month I’ve been focused mainly on my thesis. It deals with the familiar question of the value of private photographs as evidence. For this research I’ve read books and attended lectures. I even went to visit a shop that sells complete family albums from various families. A great source of inspiration. In writing, some of the interesting stuff I came across were classics such as Susan Sontag’s On Photographhy and Regarding the Pain of Others, and Roland Barthes‘ Camera Lucida. New ones that stood out were Marianne Hirsch‘ essay The Generation of Post-Memory, and Annette Kuhn’s essay Remembrance: The Child I Never Was and John Tagg’s Evidence Truth and Order. Good stuff!
In February I will start working on my end presentation for the Sandberg finals. It will culminate into an exhibition, a book or into fireworks —or all of it at once!
I wish you a nice and hungry christmas holidays!
Ina Marie Schmidt
