Chris Ireland

The genesis of this photographic exploration of family came from great tragedy. The patch like grids of photos are constructed from an archive of images taken by my mother, who recently passed away after a long bought with brain damage due to injuries sustained from a fall while vacationing in 2015. Since this incident, I had scanned over 4000 photos as a way to process my grief. When I would scan the library of photos I amassed, I noticed I had only about 100 pictures of mom.

One of the keywords I used in archiving the photos was “mom’s camera flash”. I had more pictures where you couldn’t see mom unless you looked in a window in the back of the image for a reflection of her and/or her camera flash. As a continued to sort and apply keywords to these photos, I also made inventories of other visual cues, such as pictures of my dad standing in the frame by himself, pictures of 1970/80’s motel rooms and rest stops on vacation, and other common occurrences.

I want to the undo the objectification of the family album and take it out of the forgotten, immobile, and mortified state of typical family imagery and turn it into something fluid and dynamic. I want these images to feel alive again. While these images come from my own personal family archives, I believe the cataloging of certain events and family touchstones can reveal something universal beyond particular historical, social, and economic circumstances. What the vernacular of family photos can communicate is a sense of identity that is defined through family background. Self-image can often be intertwined with the image of the family, whether in harmony or in conflict of it. Photographs tap into the reality of the family life and the myth of the ideal family as well.