Andrew Brooke
and his Forgotten Memories

An experienced and talented photographer and filmmaker, Andrew Brooke continues to charm us with his unique vision. A special favourite of ours is the project he calls Forgotten Memories. Through these original prints, he introduces us to the subjects that lie at the heart of his work; the passing of time, our sense of time, people and their doubts...

Andrew Brooke ©Andrew Brooke MM Gallery

Forgotten Memories :
the story of a project

The Forgotten Memories project is comprised of almost fifty prints, some in black and white, others in colour, featuring match boxes. Magic is born from the objects themselves and what they tell. For these little boxes, which were once found everywhere, have kept track of past times, fleeting moments, places encountered, which we believed had not left a mark on our memories. Twisted, torn or perfectly preserved, they symbolise both the truth of our memories and the doubts of our lives.

Maison Mère - Andrew Brooke ©Maison Mère - Andrew Brooke

A highly personal
project

What led him to think about such a small and seemingly insignificant object? Why photograph it in its raw state without setting it in any form of context? Andrew Brooke explains that he collected these boxes for several years during his life before storing them away. While preparing to move home, during the sorting and packaging of his possessions he came across almost 300 matchboxes that he had picked up in bars and hotels. Responding to the feeling of being plunged back into a particular era of his life, he decided to photograph them, and Forgotten Memories was born. Visual poetry arises from these unpretentious objects, so perfectly pure in their staging that they become simply captivating. True “catalysts of the imagination”, as the artist says, these small items inscribe in us the passage of time and our humanity.

All the beauty of little things is found in these creations by Andrew Brooke. Allow yourself to be carried away by this unexpected beauty, this magic of the moment, this depth of doubt that everyone conceals. We have no doubt that we love it!

Maison Mère - Andrew Brooke ©Maison Mère - Andrew Brooke

Andrew Brooke
in 3 Instagram posts

When people look at my Forgotten Memories and they don’t know I am there I hear them say: "Do you remember that time when … ?" We have all said it.   Photographs exist only of something that was. A time when.

#1 The champagne on the bar moment is memorable, unrepeatable, and genuine.  It evokes a period which is full of great memories for me, but these moments were juxtaposed in my memory to real life.

#2 "The Man In The Villa” as I call the next photograph is an encounter I will never forget in Maputo, Mozambique at the end of the Civil War, life was hard for him.

#3 The third shows Bacchanalian Gazette open on the centre spread, which is a work to presents my portfolio in the form of a newspaper of the night.

An image that is beautiful, beautiful in the moment, in its effortlessness, openness, confidence and trust.  In these I see joy in one, trauma in another and beauty in another, each one means nothing unless we know the other, there is no joy without sadness, no beauty without imperfection.

Maison Mère - Andrew Brooke ©Maison Mère - Andrew Brooke

Andrew Brooke

Maison Mère - Andrew Brooke ©Maison Mère - Andrew Brooke

Andrew Brooke