Despite our best efforts to preserve our memories, they fade and deteriorate with time. We rely heavily on the photographic image as an aid to recall these beautiful fragments of time.
The memories captured by the photograph provide biographical reference material for future study but they are far from permanent records. These images have been presented as preserved specimens in bottles that were most commonly found in an apothecary. These images were collected much like an entomologist would collect insects. They were not curated in a natural history museum, cataloged neatly for identification purposes. They were collected over decades from numerous locations, discarded and long forgotten by their original caretakers. Without the proper preservation, these stories are fated to be lost forever. Similar to the exercise of collecting insects, upon close observation, the collector can learn about the relationships between the subjects and their environments.
These forgotten souvenirs still clutch tightly to their stories but have been preserved for others to participate in the study of their lives.