Mutable Witness
Old photographs hint at how memory shapes perception, not as perfect recall but as striations layered onto clay. This isn't erasure; instead, an object gathers meaning through deliberate engagement, accumulating impressions with each viewing—a history both visible and obscured. The ethical cost lies in recognizing that any attempt to grasp a thing fully also alters it, adding another subjective trace to its form. Valuing something, then, may rest on accepting this interwoven state of being.