Pareidolia and Possibility: Daura Campos on Art, Alchemy, and Emotion 

In this interview with Cluster London, Daura Campos discusses her unique approach to photography as a form of narrative alchemy. By reinterpreting discarded negatives through transformative processes like emulsion removal and film soup, Daura layers new meaning onto old contexts, inviting viewers to engage their imagination.

Her project Cloud Watching reflects the power of pareidolia—the human tendency to find patterns in randomness—encouraging introspection in an age of digital overload. With her work, Daura explores themes of resilience, memory, and the artist’s responsibility in reshaping collective narratives.

Hi Daura! You mention artistic alchemy in reshaping narratives. Could you discuss how you balance the original context of the photographs with your reinterpretation?

Balancing the original context of a photograph with reinterpretation is like a dialogue between the past and the present. The original context carries a story that I treat as raw material. Through processes like emulsion removal or film soup, I explore how these narratives can transform. I aim to honor the original while creating space for viewers to engage with the work through their own memories and interpretations. It’s less about erasing the past and more about layering new meanings over it, like re-reading a story with a fresh perspective.

The title Cloud Watching relates to pareidolia. Can you delve deeper into this concept and how it connects to the viewer's experience with your work?

Pareidolia—the tendency to find patterns in randomness—is at the heart of Cloud Watching. One of its most common examples is spotting shapes in clouds, where we might see a face, an animal, or a fantastical form. This phenomenon mirrors how we assign meaning to abstract forms, whether in fleeting cloudscapes or fragmented memories. My project invites viewers to engage their imagination and personal experiences, turning abstraction into something deeply individual. Just as pareidolia creates a personal narrative from a random shape, my work transforms the discarded film into an open-ended story, emphasizing the act of looking as an active, interpretive process.

How do you define narrative within the context of your photography? What elements do you consider crucial for constructing a narrative?

In my work, narrative is both what is captured and what emerges through reinterpretation. I see it as a dynamic process shaped by context, texture, and viewer interaction. Crucial elements include time—both in terms of the image's history and its transformation—and space, where the fragments coexist with abstraction to create new meanings. The narrative isn’t linear but layered, inviting reinterpretation and imagination.