Bodies Disintegrate in Photographic Representations of Memories

Through the lens of memory, concepts of reality can be distorted to fit new interpretations. In her digital compositions which combine real models, posed in the reality, with surreal editing in later versions culminate into striking images, Japanese photographer Yuichi Ikehata shares her vision of what remains by focusing in on life's "moments of beauty, sadness, fun, perfection, and those days when nothing special happens."

The Chiba-based photographer examines the fleeting and often warped quality of our memories by depicting the decay of elegant but tragic humanoid figures à la Ava from 2014's Ex Machina.

To achieve the effect in her ongoing series, Long-Term Memory, the juxtaposes disparate elements from her personal memory banks, drawing from several sources to form a final image in her head. In describing the process, Ikehata first develops a base from a photograph of a human, often adorned with wire to make the sculpture. The artist, via translation, explains, "There are various differences between human body photos taken first, and works made by hand; I have to correct and synthesize both to make a work. Sometimes, I redo or break and re-shoot a sculpture."

Ikehata considers the photographer's position in modern society as one of contemplation, reflecting the things "can be supplemented by [viewers] with imagination." Fill in the gaps in images of her work, below:

See more surreal photography work from Yuichi Ikehata on her blog, here.

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