What constitutes memory? This is primarily the question being asked by Marianne Hirsch in Projected Memories-- and it's a very complicated one. What struck me most when reading the piece was the idea that memory is not composed of snapshot images, but of an intricate blend of emotions, thoughts, and powerful impressions--- the whole experience of life contributes to the way our memories are formed.
I couldn't help but think of some of the most moving and disturbing pictures I've seen from events which took place (or are taking place) during my lifetime--- the 9/11 attacks, the genocide in Darfur, or the terror attacks which wreak havoc in Israel on a too-frequent basis. I may not have seen the buildings fall, but I felt the panic and grief of the situation in a major way. The emotions associated with that day have always been a part of my "human experience", but the images accompanying my own perceptions made it even more profoundly personal for me. Now there are dust-covered faces running across a bridge (faces that could have been mine or my family member's), whereas before there was a blank, to be filled with faceless horror. The images make my own memories of the terrible event that much sharper. It is interesting that merely seeing pictures of people I don't know changes the way I remember that day, especially since I didn't see those pictures until months later. However, I know that they do, and that the change is meaningful.
For me, Projected Memories was illuminating and revealing--- I know I will never look at a photographic image, either of myself or of other people or things, without considering it, even on an unconscious level, as part of a vast temporal, spatial, and creative way of producing memories.