We know that memories are inextricably linked to photographs, and we often conflate stories or misremember details while looking at family pictures, but what happens when we lose access to our family photos and the histories associated with them? Like many Jewish Americans, searching for my family’s roots has led to myriad dead ends; I’ve found names, dates, and random facts related to a handful of ancestors, but nothing close to a complete narrative. Details of individuals have been lost as people die and their memories disappear with them. This is further complicated by the fact that I come from a diasporic culture where official records from Russia and Eastern Europe largely cease to exist, and histories depend on oral traditions. 

 

Elusive Memory: Lost Histories, denies viewers most of the visual information photographs and identification documents normally reveal. The pieces allude to lost cultures, stories, and identities - especially in situations of forced migration (the case for my ancestors who fled Ukraine and Poland during the Russian pogroms of the 19th century). These intimate still life images, with only selected information visible, include passport photos, identification documents, old portraits, letters, and religious objects belonging to deceased relatives as subject matter. My photographs evoke the universal experience of struggling to recall the past - often with little clarity; they represent the loss of family history and speak to the ephemeral nature of memory.