...but so many good things happened to you!

PHOTOGRAPHY

Apr 28

Through cutting, folding, and weaving old family photos, the artist explores how joy and trauma intertwine. This tactile reworking of images reveals how even our happiest memories are shaped—and sometimes undone—by what followed them.

Words and Photography Sabrina Komár

Why is it that we remember good memories less than bad ones? In my project I am looking for the answer to this through family portraits which I appear in or I have taken in the past, and which I have good memories of, but forgot them over time. Without looking at photos, it’s like there are only pixels in the place of memories. However, I can clearly recall to this day that, for example, what nightmares I had for many years as a child after an unprocessed trauma. While I cut, fold, and weave these photos, not only manual but also mental work is going on. I realize more and more that there is no such thing as a pure, happy memory taken by itself. The longer I have a photograph in my hands and work with it, the more the future of the moment captured in the image shatters. Because I already know it’s past. The impressions of happy moments, which are pixelated in my memories, but clear when recalled, are destroyed again by negative memories.

In reflecting on my memories, I’ve come to realize that moments I once saw as joyful are often closely related to pain. As I physically manipulate the photos, I create a new narrative where good and bad memories lose their sharp contrast. A kind of balance develops between them, yet they remain inseparable. These images, therefore, do not merely capture a singular happy moment but embody the duality of memory, where every positive experience carries the shadow of its darker side.

“While I cut, fold, and weave these photos, not only manual but also mental work is going on.”

About Sabrina

Her works are inspired by her own history, her feelings, they are self-portraits, internal monologues in various forms and techniques. She studied Textile design MA in Budapest, and even her award-winner diploma project pointed into the direction of experimental photography. Since then she has won several awards and recognitions in the field of photography (e.g. finalist at Lensculture Art Photography Awards 2024 and BBA Photography Prize 2024).

In her art she expands, cross and deconstruct genre and media boundaries with a sense of experimentation. She uses a wide range of analog and digital techniques with a huge amount of freedom, from archaic photography techniques to digital image modification procedures. In addition, she likes using manual techniques also, from sewing, cutting, folding to weaving, with which her works crosses the border between photography and fine art and acquire a spatial dimension.

To find out more about her work follow her on Instagram or visit her Website

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...but so many good things happened to you!

Through cutting, folding, and weaving old family photos, the artist explores how joy and trauma intertwine. This tactile reworking of images reveals how even our happiest memories are shaped—and sometimes undone—by what followed them.

“While I cut, fold, and weave these photos, not only manual but also mental work is going on.”

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