Engaging with the past: the role of family photographs in personal narratives

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As we enter a hyper-digitalized era, with the advancement of technologies in capturing, representing, and archiving memories and histories, one cannot help but feel overwhelmed at the retrospective prospects that this digital tsunami has to offer. Among human’s time-capsule devices, photography has long been hailed for its presumed objectivity in preserving moments of spatio-temporal specificities. Nonetheless, its controversial link to memory and reality is now being reassessed. For visual contemporary artists, particularly those who employ photographic materials or media, this tension is spotlighted and explored as artists wade across treacherous water to uncover, engage with, and ‘translate’ a diverse array of photographic mementos into subtly provoking artworks. The seminar and screening program “Fractured Lens: Memory, Archive, and Photography at an Intersection” attempts to shed light, unpack, and add nuances to this intricate nexus. This two-day event is composed of a discussion with invited guest speakers and a film screening.