Nostalgia - Anna Rotty

Nostalgia has worked its way into many conversations in this present moment, in which time seems to stands still, but so much is changing, moving, evolving and desperately trying to more forward instead of taking a step back. The intersection of personal and political seems to be floating to the surface in many ways.

Over several weeks, 8 women met each week to consider the theme of nostalgia in our work. Nostalgia is something that encompasses multitudes, both warm and familiar, counterproductive and dangerous. We focused on this difficult to define, elusive and powerful emotion. Through conversations around our personal experiences as women, migrants, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, grandmothers, and as people reflecting on our pasts, all caught between places and homes, we realized early on that each of us felt nostalgia very differently, but as we shared more and more we found many threads and connections through our work.

Some of us revisited early personal photographs and familial or historic images and re-contextualized them. Others shot new work based on recollections of home, distance, memory, reverie, race, unresolved pain, longing, loss and fear. Almost everything was rooted in an attempt to hold onto something, or alternatively, let it go.

“Nostalgia for me is an emotional lag in transitions. Life moves faster than our ability to process change. Nostalgia is also an inherent part of the immigrant experience. As families search for better lives in new lands, we leave behind loved ones, comforting sights and smells, and multi-generational roots. This practice has allowed me to start bridging the gaps between the past and the present in my work about my family in Ukraine and Russia. Is my own evolution chasing nostalgia out of my work and allowing me to see in the present?” Stella Kalinina

“Nostalgia pierces my soul with the same violence of the waves of the Mediterranean on a grey October afternoon” Erica Canepa

“Through my work, “nostalgia” becomes a deeply personal journey to introspect about identity and survival, and works as therapy for the battered soul in the larger societal context. The intimate self plays with light, shadows, my father’s paintings, and found photographs to create symbols, stories and imagery which go beyond the scope of my immediate vision.” Krishna Goswami

“March began as a metamorphosis of sorts, cocooning in my home. Suddenly, there was time to contemplate the world, family, friends, mortality, and reminisce about ”the good old days” aka nostalgia. My interpretation of nostalgia, through conversation in our practice group, has transformed from happy little memories to anger. Photography has allowed me to emerge from my shelter and transfer my anger into a project entitled “The Talk.” This piece reflects the ties that bind African-American males through generations. Once completed, I will release it like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon into the universe.” Melanie Carvalho

“To me, nostalgia was dangerous, a suspicious longing for a mostly imagined past, a conservative, anti-progressive sentiment. But through discussions and realizing projects, it seems to me now that it can be used in positive ways, as a legitimate form of remembrance and a starting point for discussion. Nostalgia can be a connection to an audience and can be used to tell forgotten stories, look at inconvenient histories, and work as a coping mechanism, a therapy for individual and societal issues. I think about a future built on past ideals and past disappointments.” Yvonne Dalschen

“Since life slowed down and I’ve spent more time in isolation, I’ve been revisiting unresolved memories and emotions. I have been considering photographs I made with my grandmother 10 years ago and understanding them differently now that she has passed. I think about my ancestral ties to her, how my memories have shifted over time, and explore integrating familiar patterns from my childhood into my present home in hopes of uncovering or connecting with a lost part of myself.” Anna Rotty

“In light of political trends towards using data mining to weaponize emotions in support of white supremacy, with a focus on nostalgia, I find that it is a radical and delicate act to allow my personal feelings of nostalgia to surface through my artwork. Nostalgia is a complex place that can include more than just a longing for theoretically happier times in the past. My experience of nostalgia is like gently pulling apart the weave of the present to look at the past while also acknowledging the complexity of personal histories.” Morgain Bailey

“Nostalgia is a yearning, a state of consciousness known only to humankind. Are we missing what is over? Is that nostalgia? Or is it a fundamental yearning to be a part of something larger that makes us hold onto photographs of people we cannot name but can only identify by family lineage? Is it the lens that makes a viewer see global loss in the photograph of an empty city corridor? Nostalgia is wily and, to be honest, I don’t trust its impulses.” Diana Greene

Anna Rotty is an artist based in Oakland, CA. She received a BFA in photography from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011. Anna has been an artist in residence at Maker’s Circle and One Plus One Plus Two in San Francisco. She has recently exhibited with Incline Gallery, SF Camerawork, PhotoPlace Gallery and at UMass Amherst. Projects have been featured with Juxtapoz, Six Feet Photography, and the Curated Fridge. Her alternative-process photography was recently recognized by the Denis Roussel Award. Community and collaboration is an important part of Anna’s practice. She is currently working as a Poll Worker Coordinator with the San Francisco Department of Elections.

Learn more about the artists:

Stella Kalinina - @stella_kalinina

Erica Canepa - @ericacanepa

Krishna Goswami - @krishna_goswami_

Melanie Carvalho - @melanie_takes_pictures

Yvonne Dalschen - @yvonnedalschen

Anna Rotty - @annarotty

Morgain Bailey - @bailey_photo

Diana Greene - @lookout__girl

guest-curated galleriesSeptember 14, 2020featured photographers