The Recovered project is a work in progress spanning for many years in which he appropriates photographs of unknown authors. He comes by them through rescuing data from memory cards, which are most often purchased on web sale portals (eBay, bolha, etc.). Deleting a file or formatting a memory card does not delete the data completely. They can be restored with the use of particular software. The files are often restored completely and we can see the original photos, but sometimes due to errors in file reconstruction, the result is a mutation. It appears in the form of colour geometric plots, which aesthetically cut the motif. The series also calls for a reflection on the privacy of photos at a time when photography is massively uploaded to social networks and latter exploited commercially. The anthropological aspect can also be interesting, since the memory cards come from different countries and continents. We can notice that quite often the use of photography is very similar (family celebrations, travel…). However, in some other cases we can also observe local specifics, for example, photographs for a bank archive in India – portraits with a barcode in front of a blue sheet taken on the street.

All photographs: courtesy of Simon Podgoršek.