Investigating family culture
‘A Family Portrait’ consists of ca. 300 images of objects I photographed while living with a Norwegian family during the lockdown in 2020. I was interested to capture manifestations of the family as a unifying culture above individual identities. In the process of building-up such bonding narratives, family objects play an important role. These objects are highly specific though encompass a very generic aspect, which allows us as viewers, to grasp them regardless of their own history.
This project was born precisely at the time when I felt trapped in my inherited worldviews, and was longing for meaning within my own family relationships. Confined in this place safely distant from –but sufficiently resembling home– I intuitively began evaluating my own normative heritage. This investigation finds an echo in the systematic, almost neurotic collection of domestic objects, which I scrutinize, through the lens of the camera.
A reflexive text, taking the form of a mental wandering through the house, oscillating between description, meditation and recollection, runs alongside the photo investigation. (listen to the text)
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