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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![claire ebendinger](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Capture-décran-2021-08-17-à-10.54.11-1024x723.jpg)
![claire ebendinger](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Capture-décran-2021-08-17-à-10.54.21-1024x722.jpg)
![claire ebendinger](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Capture-décran-2021-08-17-à-10.54.04-1024x724.jpg)
![claire ebendinger](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Capture-décran-2021-08-17-à-10.46.23-1024x722.jpg)
![claire ebendinger](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Capture-décran-2021-08-17-à-10.46.32-1024x723.jpg)
![claire ebendinger](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Capture-décran-2021-08-17-à-11.00.54-1024x682.png)
![claire ebendinger](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Phone_IMG_0769_edit-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Phone_IMG_2127_edit-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_lossless,ret_img,w_900/http://www.claire-ebendinger.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Phone_IMG_5556_edit-1024x768.jpg)