Family Album

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The collection is based on the concept of family photography. Although, I have used myself to perform each picture using costumes, props and locations, which relate to various time periods and familial activities, they are by no means self-portraits. By using myself the work becomes a critique of women in contemporary British culture, whose position within the family and within society has changed radically over the past 100 years. I am merely acting out these familiar roles.

I have tried to encapsulate how the role of family photography has progressed since the birth of the commercial industry, therefore the format, size of image, and type of paper used are all carefully considered and relate closely to each time period.

Although, as a whole family photography is taken less seriously than other art forms, it is by far the most popular form of photography and an integral part of most people’s lives. Anyone who is part of a family unit will be able to find at least one image within my collection, that they too, will possess; a photo which will conjure similar emotive responses or memories as their own family images do.
    
The most fascinating aspect of family photography is the freedom of interpretation it offers the viewer. When you explore other people’s albums you are immediately compelled to link them to familiar stories or tales from your own family history, but more than often you can never envisage the reality behind the image. It belongs to a completely different person, with different life experiences, and it is these hidden mysteries that make the topic so interesting.
    
When exploring the collaboration of images, the only information disclosed is the characters name and the date the image was taken, therefore you are only provided with the boundaries of the time period in which the image was supposedly recorded, and are therefore left to appropriate each photo as you would with your own family experiences, constructing your own narrative.
   
Although the project is complete for me, the exploration of such a meaningful subject, could go on forever. I hope you are all able to construct your own pictorial portrayal behind each of my images, for there is no given narrative. Maybe they are aspects of my   own family history, after spending years rooting through my Nan’s vast collection of family memorabilia. However, I hope the collection is not only my own, but a collection which relates closely to you as well.