The Photo Archive Project - Dorothy

I worked with a group of older women looking back through their lives, creating an archive of sifted memories. Each chose one photograph, imbued with memories that held most significance for them. A moment that defined family.
This is Dorothy on the day of her christening when she was named by her parents. Her mother, in the photograph, wears a locket with a photograph of her own mother inside. Dorothy now wears the same locket, containing the same photograph of her grandmother. Three generations and still the family connection continues. Dorothy will soon pass the locket and the photograph down to her own daughter.
Although how we take photographs has been continually changing since the inception of photography, the potency of the photograph cannot be underestimated. Although family cannot always been seen, we cannot deny their presence in our lives, often on a daily basis. Although families can be disparate, it is the photograph that remains constant and is the constant presence of our family in our life, even if the family is no longer together.