Aipad 2026: Carlos Idun-Tawiah: Memories Between Earth and Sky

By Carlos Idun-Tawiah

What happens when photography not only documents the past but also reimagines it?

Memories Between Earth and Sky is a collaborative body of work created with my mother. Through fictionalized portraits of lovers and friends, this ongoing series imagines conversations between us about her love story with my late father—from their first encounter to her final farewell at his grave. The work resists erasure—an attempt to make visible the fragile memories of their largely unphotographed love.

While developing this series, I often reflected on how forensic composite artists reconstruct a face or a moment from witness accounts. Here, my mother is the witness to her own love story, and I translate her recollections into images. This process allows me to expand the boundaries of photography—shifting history from one form to another, transforming memory and emotion into something tangible.

Some images emerge from reinvented family photographs, restaged with subjects wearing the old clothes and belongings my parents preserved. By centering these everyday artifacts, I treat their love not as a case to decode, but as a living presence. I turn away from grand romantic tropes to celebrate ordinariness, friendship, and the domestic—the quiet architecture that sustains intimacy, family, and our shared humanity.

With Memories Between Earth and Sky, I invite viewers to find reflections of their own stories within these imagined photographs. The project embodies my desire to use photography as a vessel for faith, hope, and love. If I can reimagine my family’s lost archive in a way that feels universal, perhaps I have reimagined everyone else’s too.

Park Avenue Armory, New York

Booth D8

VIP Preview: April 22, 2026

Public Days: April 23–26, 2026