Random

One day I received from a photographer a picture of myself which I could not remember being taken, for all my efforts; I inspected the tie, the sweater, to discover in what circumstances I had worn them; to no avail. And yet, because it was a photograph I could not deny that I had been there (even if I did not know there). <…>

I went to the photographer’s show as to a police investigation, to learn at last what I no longer knew about myself.

[Roland Barthes. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography].

While searching through my archives for references for new works,

I realized that either I don't recall the circumstances under which a particular photo was taken (such photos are a minority), or, conversely, it was only thanks to the photograph that the events of that day/moment resurfaced in my memories (most of such photos). In the first case, the photograph prompted me to explore the place itself, which was familiar to me, but my presence there at that moment was no longer evident. Secondly, it served as a means of stimulating memory; without that random photo, the memory would have been lost.