An Old Friend

When looking back on the memories of their childhood, for many people there is a central character involved in each of these moments, the good and the bad: their childhood stuffed animal. For some they hold on to these stuffed animals well into their adulthood, and at times even forever. There is a certain comfort and magic created by these plush companions that can be hard to let go of as one grows out of their childhood. In this project Sally Vaughan staged her and others’ childhood stuffed animals in bedrooms reminiscent of the bedrooms from her own memory as child. These photographs consider the concept of rosy retrospective, which is the psychological phenomena that explains the tendency in people to remember things more positively than they actually were. Through this series Sally explores how identity is formed as a child through one’s stuffed animal and the space they grow up in. This project engages in themes of self-identity, the remembrance of one’s past, and the ways in which humans seek comfort and meaning from material items. An Old Friend is part of a larger series of works by Sally Vaughan on childhood stuffed animals, alongside a documentary, titled Cleo, featuring the stories of three childhood stuffed animals.