In memory of cats : the camera and the ordinary moment : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
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Date
2009
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Massey University
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Abstract
In memory of cats: The camera and the ordinary moment looks at the way in
which families use photographs to remember the past. Photography’s offer of
memory is limited to a visual trace, so strategies of oral telling are examined to
interrogate the way in which memories can be recovered from photographs.
Martha Langford’s study of the similarities between structures in oral culture and
the photograph album and Annette Kuhn’s strategies for reading family
photographs in a broader historical context, are used to examine and recover
memories from my own photographic archive. Using moving image to record
those memories and then tell how that photographic evidence has shaped my
present, is a process suggested by Linda Williams in her writing about how postmodern
documentary can use the past to intervene in the present. Other
documentary styles, performative documentary and the essay film, offer a
structure for personal memories to be revisited and re-presented to public
viewers.
Offering a space for personal or specific memories to be understood or related
to by a viewer is discussed by Lisa Saltzman, who looks at indexical forms other
than the photograph, like casting and tracing. These ideas culminated in my
video work, A Clowder of Cats, which explores the losses that have been a part
of my history, through photographs of the cats my family has owned. The
camera gives us a strategy to remember moments that may otherwise have
been forgotten, and moving image provides a space for those ordinary moments
to be bought back to the present.
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Keywords
Personal memories, Photographs of cats, Video images, Friends and family