The original Polaroid in the exhibition at SODA was taken minutes before boarding on the plane to officially move to the UK. It is a self portrait of me, my mum and my dad at the airport. The Polaroid was immediately placed in my pocket allowing time for it to be developed in a warm and dark space, the final result only visible to me once I was on the plane on my own.

Extract from an essay I wrote in 2020:

“Polaroids are one of a kind. They are not designed to be reproduced. They differ from every other form of photography in the sense that the object itself, the Polaroid, is both a document of what was happening as well as an object that was present in that irretrievable moment. This indexicality and proximity bridges the gap between a reproduction and the presence of an original piece in a unique time and space. It preserves the image’s aura that Walter Benjamin worried would disappear. With only eight shots per cartridge, the Polaroid acts not only as a mere photograph, but also as a souvenir (French for memory) that can be gifted.

The materiality of the Polaroid is perhaps making up for the fact that the objects and people portrayed can not always be taken with us (…) The Polaroid becomes a talisman, a sort of magical object with deeper meaning, it stops being a photograph, it becomes a horcrux of the object or subject portrayed.”