I discovered Pedro Meyer and ZoneZero in 1996. Pedro had previously done a CD ROM about the last years of his parents' lives, called I Photograph to Remember, that had received a lot of critical praise, but I couldn't afford it. Pedro was an early adopter of the Internet, too. He saw the Internet as a way for Latin American photographers to be seen. ZoneZero has always been a source of amazing images but I haven't paid close attention to what has been happening there. It turns out that I Photograph to Remember is now on ZoneZero along with some other photographic stories that I will be needing to check out. I Photograph to Remember takes about 35 minutes to view. Take in the whole thing. It's a love poem.

I Photograph to Remember

“... some background thoughts”
by Pedro Meyer

A decade after the first presentation of “I Photograph to Remember” which was originally designed to be viewed on a computer screen and delivered by means of a CD ROM, [ by the way, this was the first CD ROM with continuous sound and images that had ever been produced anywhere], we can now with present day technology bring you over the internet what was initially available only via a CD ROM.

I will examine here from the photographer’s point of view, some of the experiences and thoughts associated with the making of this work; I will also discuss some of the problems inherent with the vehicle itself, the CD ROM, and how it evolved. (...)

But why are we talking about such matters of technology and distribution, in the context of a body of work so closely related to poetry? The only reason I can come up with, is that in this age of transition, where digital solutions are constantly evolving, we need to evaluate all that has something to do with how our content is affected. After all, we do not create in a vacuum; we produce and we address our creative energies hopefully in the direction of that which is plausible. We need to understand how these technological changes influence that which can be produced.

In this context several things have become clear to me. The computer screen will in time become so ubiquitous that it will no longer draw much attention to itself, and people will no longer bring their initial prejudices to bear on viewing our work on such displays. If the content is to be delivered in an efficient manner, and thus the screen rendered transparent, the only thing remaining will be the nature of the content itself.
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