Bending Time: Remembrance, Bereavement, and (Missing) Personal Photographs

Abstract: Visual and linguistic embellishments—such as storytelling, physical additions of tactile components, juxtapositions, and recontextualizations—enact transformations upon important photographs. The resulting photography-based objects tell a fuller story not only of the individuals shown, but also of those who cared for them. This article considers the narrative dynamics at play in remembrance and bereavement processes associated with personal photographs—from physical prints to contemporary digital images—giving focused attention to the ways absence is mediated through visual media in contexts of loss and the complex and imaginative temporalities embedded in these mediation processes.