This paper stages a discussion around my film Notes: Remembered and Found (2024) and introduces it through a key scene where a hand holds a photographic negative above a lightbox, preparing it for printing in a darkroom. The scene epitomises the film's engagement with analogue photography and cinema
Paper long abstract
The concept of the "poor image," coined by artist and theorist Hito Steyerl, underscores the transformation of images into reflections of their own existence, shaped by appropriation and exploitation. Influenced by Peter Loizos’ theory of the types of time in Cyprus, the film kaleidoscopically collages familial archival material: cassette tapes, notebooks, diaries and family photographs, handled and negotiated by four generations of women.
The film grapples with questions of cultural memory, identity, and the role of photography in post-conflict societies. In conclusion the paper critically examines the notion of ethnographic imagery and war photography in particular, and reflecting on the manipulation of images for nationalist propaganda, challenges audiences to reconsider how images can be reimagined to foster post-nationalist understandings of Cypriot history.