My mother is a storyteller and throughout my childhood she would often speak of her past and her memories to me. Her stories were a way of sharing with me the history of our intertwined lives – to pass down her memories was an act of preservation. As I grew older I shared her sentimental traits of storytelling but with photography. In 2011 I collaborated with my mother to preserve pieces of those stories she told to me but through the photographic lens. The choice to work with the Polaroid format was made to embrace the iconic image style of the past and of family albums.
These images were captured with the 20×24 “Land Camera”, built by Edwin Land (1909-91), founder of Polaroid. Only seven of these cameras were ever made.
The particular camera used belongs to Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston and is the only 20×24 Polaroid camera that is not in a museum or being used commercially.
2011