Tamar Haytayan

Memento Mori is an exploration of memory, mortality and grief. With family photos and coffee remains I made and photographed installations to evoke memory, loss and the mystery around death. The family photos represent memory and the coffee remains represent many moments of drinking Lebanese coffee with loved ones and turning the cup to have someone read it once the coffee remains have dried enough to form pictures to tell the future of our lives – and despite this the future remains a mystery. Through this project, I try to understand my mortality and wonder what is dream and reality; while everything is converging around superstition.

I used old family photos and transferred them on small message bottles and photographed them again with the use of lights and a macro lens. My own memory of my childhood is a blur due to living in war for part of it and then fleeing to make a new life in England. I am intrigued by memory and how everything is fleeting. I see these pictures and wonder if these are actually real people. By transferring these pictures on small message bottles, I try to allow them to live longer and the process includes rubbing off the pulp in warm water, rubbing to find something/to reveal something in my family’s past. My exploration is around the theme of memory and photography. By manipulating the images I am trying to find some truth, I am trying to give these photos some life and a voice.