The Impossible Project Magazine

In a 2015 interview with The Impossible Project Magazine (now Polaroid Originals), Joshua Sariñana, PhD, reflects on how his neuroscience expertise and photographic practice intersect to explore memory, identity, and the human experience. Drawing from his academic background at MIT and Harvard, where he studied the genetic and neural basis of memory formation, Sariñana’s photographic series examines the dynamic nature of memories and their impact on personal narratives. His work employs circular frames and layered imagery to represent the instability of memory, inviting viewers to reflect on the emotional connections between the past and present.

Sariñana’s photography delves into darker aspects of human existence—such as isolation, disconnection, and longing—while uncovering beauty within these experiences. He explains how memories are not static but are continually reshaped through reconsolidation, a process where recalling a memory makes it unstable and susceptible to change. By engaging with this idea visually, his work underscores how memory and emotion intertwine to shape identity.