Emotional Memory and Emotional Expression in Photography.

Vivian’s works have made me think deeply. Her works are based on her childhood memories in Africa. Can these special emotional experiences also be reflected in other photographers?

So I looked at other photographers, and I found that almost every photograph has a unique story that comes from their emotional or literary experiences. This made me interested in studying emotional memory and expression in photography.

About emotional memory:

The concept of “emotional memory” was first proposed in 1894 by French psychologist Ribot in his published article “the study of emotional memory”. Emotional memory refers to the process of perceiving an external stimulus when it causes a strong or profound emotional or emotional experience. Ribot argues that “emotional memory is the recovery of past emotions.” (Ribot, 1894)

Emotional memory is one of the important areas of emotion and memory research, which has a great correlation with individual growth, behavior, perception, belief, goals, and even self and mental health. Emotional memory is a deeply subconscious memory that most people cannot control. When certain specific situations or places appear, one’s emotions can’t help but rise, but oneself can’t helplessly fall into that emotion and suffer. In particular, some emotional memories of childhood have almost formed an automated, mechanical response, and it is even more difficult to handle it by themselves. Based on the above, I am more certain that emotional memory has an important impact on people. Photographers can also create emotionally rich works based on emotional memory.

Keith Payne, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina. He and his colleagues found that emotional memory is the hardest to forget, especially when it comes from visual cues. Zh
Payne said that active oblivion is an adaptive manifestation. For example, people often forget misunderstandings, old phone numbers of friends, or meeting times before changes. Active forgetting helps the brain’s memory storage system to update new information. However, Payne and colleagues found in experiments that even mild and mild emotional memory events, such as poor test scores or criticism at work, are hard to forget.

Payne believes that the prerequisite for people to deliberately forget one thing is to be completely separated from the information related to the event. However, emotional factors in memory often disrupt this process. He said, “People’s emotional memories are associated with many parts of their lives when they are formed, so it is difficult to isolate them. Once people deliberately forget these memories, emotional factors will make it stand out and become more memorable . “

Research on Emotional Memory：

• Labar, K. S., Cabeza, R. (2006). Cognitive neuroscience of emotional memory. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7, 54–64.
• Mills, C., & D’Mello, S. (2014). On the validity of the autobiographical emotional memory task for emotion induction. PLoS ONE, 9(4). Retrieved from https://link-gale-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A375585103/AONE?u=ucca&sid=AONE&xid=631058d1
• Schacter, D. (1999). The seven sins of memory: Insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience. American Psychologist, 54(3), pp.182-203.
• Ukpokolo, I. E. (2012). Memories in Photography and Rebirth: Toward a Psychosocial Therapy of the Metaphysics of Reincarnation Among Traditional Esan People of Southern Nigeria. Journal of Black Studies, 43(3), 289–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934711419364

 So I researched two other photographers that I was very interested in, they were Ishiuchi and Shomei Tomatsu.