The passage of time seems to be the only constant. Today will dissolve into a very different and unknown tomorrow. The meaning of country, community, family, and society are being redefined. Individuality and culture is being homogenized into a new normal, and these changes are creating an anxious uncertainty.
As each day passes, those important tasks, meetings, family interactions, and the simple rituals of life are just as ephemeral. I think about how our life and our world is moving and changing at an ever-faster pace. Our childhood, early recollections of old friends, family members that have passed, times of joy and times of pain are now fragile memories. Some of these are long forgotten, and some have left only a trace.
Photography is the perfect medium to record the ephemeral. Photography freezes time as it records places, people, and moments throughout our life, as it also has been with the lives of those who came before us. Our photographs are a self-portrait of our time on this Earth, and all of our photographs together create an ongoing and evolving visual portrait of humanity.
In the relentless passage of time, one memory is replaced by the next, one day by the next, one year by the next, and one generation by another. It is not only the famous that become uncertain faceless memories. We all live an ephemeral life in an ephemeral world. As we later look at these photographs their original meaning is more ephemeral than the photographs themselves. But as time passes, the photographs too become ephemeral. And in the end, the only thing that is certain is that all is ephemeral. Life is ephemeral- so fragile- so brief.
Donald Lokuta