Photography is Art, Issue 6. 2018.6 p 105-113
PICTURING HISTORIES—— Rewriting the Family Album
In the context of global post-war art, many artists use archival materials to create historical narratives. This trend is, on the one hand, a result of artists interest in personal and collective memories and, on the other, an extension of photography’s pivotal role in the construction of real and fictional histories.
For more than a decade, Chinese photographers have been repurposing old photos to reconstruct personal histories. The diversity of these works demonstrates the range of possible ways photography can be used in historical narratives. In the context of globalisation, old photos from family albums have opened a window of opportunity for artists of Chinese descent to trace their roots and unleeash a desire to explore individual and collective identities.
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