‘The duty thus falls upon the snapshooter not to just ‘save’ moments, but to ‘immortalise’ the people who they photograph’ (Bull 2009:92) 

The notion of family is a theme that is closely exhibited within photography from a multitude of perspectives, ranging from the demonstration of healthy relationships, to more negative storytelling through nostalgic cues, being that ‘a photograph can be a site for conflicting memories’ Kuhn (2003:397). Photographers like Yury Toroptsov and Philip Toledano use conceptual methods in their work in order to implicitly give away clues about the events of their childhood. These events are centred around the memory and loss of immediate family, as well as attempts to transform an emotive notion into singular images, for example a visual representation of an intangible feeling. Indexicality is abundant when memorialising family members who have passed away as it conceptualises that the ‘taking’ of a photograph can be thought of as ‘pointing’ to something in the world, being that these photographs are closely related to presence and absence, memory, the past and death. My personal study focuses on the difficulties and struggles of growing up with a family member who, over time, deteriorates from gaining a mental illness, this being my brother who has Bipolar disorder. The family album has been developed in congruency with advancements in technology in order to pass down generational stories in order to commemorate them to serve as souvenirs of the past. My interest stems from how these tributes to past events can be used to evoke emotional stories of personal difficulty.

I find an analysis of Toroptsov and Toledano to be most appropriate here as my work resonates with theirs in a relative manner, allowing me to convey the difficulties of grieving someone who is still alive yet not who they once were. A dominating factor, however, lies in the direct contrast between Toledano’s project of ‘When I Was Six’ against Toroptsov’s work entitled ‘Deleted Scene’. Toledano’s project inhabits a dark tone throughout the photobook where he depicts archival material from his older sister’s life, Claudia, before she died in childhood, and characterises these images through ethereal dream-like images in between to represent disorientated emotions. I found that his still-life images of childhood keepsakes of which belonged to Claudia were able to create tension within his storytelling which is what I aim to do in my own work in order to depict life before my brother fell unwell to enable my viewer to follow the narrative in a chronological way and learn at a vulnerable perspective. Additionally, I wanted to interpret his ethereal images, which can be seen to resemble fluidity of emotion, into a more domestic setting by using a relatively low exposure and low angles. Alternatively, Toroptsov expresses echoes of his father within his home town of Russia in the form of ambiguous images through the formal elements and zooming into the more discrete patterns in his surroundings. I wanted to manipulate this into my work by showing the echoes of my brother in the areas of which we once shared pleasant childhood memories, yet these are sites of nostalgia and grief now. This obscurity that Toroptsov employs will allow me to be subjective and add a morose tone to my images.

The idea ‘snapshots did not reinforce the positive messages of the images, but instead went ‘beyond’ the album to fill in what the photographs did not record: negative memories’ (Bull 2009:94) is something I am also inhabiting in my work through the use of archived images of my brother in childhood and creating digitised alterations to further pursue this idea of change from the person he was remembered as. I looked at the work of Carolle Benitah for this concept as one of my artist references as she redefines herself by using her own archived images from family albums in order to symbolise and hint at different events of her life.

Origin of the family album

The development of the family album has coincided with new advancements in technology throughout history, for example ‘A Victorian album was itself a series of visual novelties, with the portraits often cut up and arranged in decorative shapes and incorporating drawings and other scrapbook items’ (Holland 2004: 128). Beginning in 1900, Eastman Kodak produced the Kodak box brownie, a basic box camera with pre-loaded film. Retailing for $1 at the time, the simplicity and low cost aspect provided specifically the middle and upper-class with the ability to generate snapshots of each other, friends and pets in order to create physical manifestations of family memories. The Kodak box brownie introduced amateur photography, with one hundred thousand of them being purchased during the first year alone, as an alternative from the difficult, lengthy and expensive processes of professional photographers inhabiting techniques of daguerreotypes and calotypes. Its simplicity began to develop and led to Kodak producing a mass of varieties, where ‘working-class people could present themselves to each other, creating a confident working-class identity’ (Holland 2004: 135)

The first commercial photographic process of Carte-de-visite, inhabited by Henry Mullins whose work is one of the most prolific within the Societe Jersiase Photo-Archive, is defined by its close-trimmed portraited aesthetic that was intended as a substitute for a visiting card. This small albumen print was produced through the use of egg whites in order to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper, with the image emerging as a direct result of exposure to light. The typical Carte-de-visite consisted of one or a few people in a studio setting, sometimes holding personal belongings to be remembered by. The cost-effective aspect meant that they were easy to formulate, making cheap copies of the same photo to be handed out to loved ones, being less delicate too so they did not require velvet-lined cases like earlier forms of photography like the Daguerrotype.

Mullins specialised in Carte-de-visites, capturing 9,000 portraits of islanders during 19th century Jersey. His work was highly politicised due to the variations of occupational backgrounds and the containment of the island’s most affluent and influential people at the time. These images consisted of Jersey political elite, such as The Bailiff, mercantile families, military officers and professional classes like doctors or advocates. Mullins gathered all these images and compiled them into an album to document the levels of social class, beginning with the most powerful roles down to the less fortunate.

Now, the idea that “The family album is now being slowly supplanted by the development of social media and the decline of traditional film”  is rife within society, being that anyone in the world with access to technology, such as a phone, can practice amateur photography; specifically for the preservation of memories and reminiscence of people and places. These technologies mean that the exchanging of memorial family images is a simpler process now, and is ever-growing in its approach to conserving the loved ones who have passed away or are distant. This chance of amateur photography stems from how ‘Once a technology exists, it may become adapted and introduced into social use in a variety of both foreseen and unforeseen ways’ (Price 2004: 13)

The work of Toroptsov and Toledano use the topics of loss and memory to exorcise personal and internal conflicts in family matters where ‘These silences, these repressions, are written into the album, into the process of its making, and into actual photographs.’ Kuhn (2003:400) in order to express a dark tale for others to relate to.

Yury Toroptsov

This reminiscence is visible in Toroptsov’s work entitled ‘Deleted Scene’ where he ventures out into his hometown within Russia, Vladivostok, to capture the echoes of his father within the formal features of the landscape.

Due to his father passing when Toroptsov was just two-years-old, he aims to unravel the neglected recollection of him as he bears little to no memories of the time he spent with him. This lures Toroptsov out into the external environment in order to get to know his father through the fragments of his memory that are scattered in these locations. Knowing that this time was shared with his father, yet unable to relish in the memories to recollect and rewind, is represented through the mysterious tones that he depicts in this photobook. These distinct patterns in rural areas of nature become cinematic through the high contrast within the composition as this adds drama and solemnity to the image to infer to the viewer that there is a dark concept and story being symbolised through the small pieces that build up the environment, just like there are pieces of Toroptsov’s fathers memory which he must seek out in order to know him. Through the ambiguity of the images, he uses an ominous tone within the images which could be metaphorical towards the difficulty of growing up in a single-parent household as something beknownst is missing to Toroptsov, however at a younger age he may or not been able to acknowledge that his father had passed.

The sharp contrast is the most eye-catching feature in this image, the comparison of the saturated yellow lake paired with the dark natural landscape of leaves and sticks displays the composition in a bold and vibrant way to catch attention. These sticks and leaves disturb the smoothness of the block-coloured water and adds texture specifically in the foreground as these are spread across more meaning that the viewer can focus on the individuality of each piece, restructuring the initial sense of tranquillity and order. As this saturated tone of yellow is commonly associated with hazardous signs, this adds a cautionary aspect to the image that conveys emotions of unsettlement, not only because of this association but also because of how unusual this composition is, creating a tone of not everything being the way it should be. This can relate to the psychological feeling of the uncanny, where everything appears correct at face value however there is just something slightly off-putting. Reflections of the surrounding trees are echoed into the yellow swamp below, adding an intricate pattern of lines in a variety of lengths and sizes to layer over one another. This creates a textural perspective to layer over this blanket of yellow that was initially thought to be flat, adding greater depth to the image and makes it come to life in a 3D manner. This layering of reaching arms off the branches of the trees can be interpreted as resembling his fathers connection to Vladivostok, being Toroptsov’s home town, and depicting that his heritage is all around him here. This is an obscure metaphor through the delicate pattern that the branches create which look like the veins within the human anatomy, being an accurate representation of how the blood vessels spread out in a randomised order, intertwine and vary in sizing. This could be Toroptsov’s attempt at trying to show that even if he doesn’t recall his father, he has the ability to honour his memory even if he is ultimately a stranger to him. This provides indexicality to Toroptsov’s work, this being tangible evidence of a things existence as he is shooting geographical parts of his home town. This concept is concerned with how the ‘taking’ of a photograph can be thought of as ‘pointing’ to something in the world,

In my own work, I have found inspiration from Toroptsov to explore this ideology of seeking the ‘unseen’ or picking apart the location as a form of obscure metaphors in memorable places that me and my brother shared our childhood in, however I have included this in a domestic environment instead to show the echoes of my brother at home when he has been admitted to hospital again.

This image is taken of my back door next to my brothers room which he uses regularly due to him being a smoker, however I thought that this would make a strong image, specifically because of the diagonal lighting that goes past the window and bounces onto the wall as when it is paired with the darkened shadows, this creates an effect of gloom and mystery. This image is slightly under-exposed, however this was my aim because I don’t want my images to be too bright as this may convey emotions differing to what I am intending, for example it may make the image look more happy as bright images can be commonly associated with lighter feelings, rather than this solemn tone that I am aiming for. As there is natural lighting coming through the window, this creates a glowing effect in the centre of the image that could be interpreted as seeing ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’ due to the darkness that is in the hallway until it reaches this burst of light. As this window acts as a privacy window due to the texture over it, meaning that the end of my garden is reflected through. Because of the objects in my garden, this has created a purple tinge to glow through which I think contributes to this idea of things getting better over time. This image also connotes ideas of being trapped, for example the cat flap acting as if a portal to the outside world even when the door is locked, however it is evidently too small for a human to go through. I feel that this is very representative of this idea of negative mental health making a person feel helpless and trapped within a consistent cycle of breakdown, treatment and healing that has repeatedly had an effect on my brother for years. This darkness shadowing around the image acts confining, as if the back door is holding in all of this darkness. I think this could clearly represent how mental health is not a physical thing, but more like a fever of the mind that is more difficult to treat in comparison to a tangible injury and disease.

These images depict the out-of-place feeling that loss brings into a family, and while the conceptual difference is that my grief is directed towards someone who is still alive, this use of an ambiguous aesthetic allows me to represent the intangible feeling of missing who my brother once was and how his memory reflects off the walls. I like Toroptsov’s approach of minimalism and formalism because it allows the viewer to familiarise themselves with the person that this memorial is for, and allows the viewer to creep into small snippets of their life for moments at a time through these snapshots.

Philip Toledano

However, Philip Toledano takes an altered approach when immortalising the life of his 9 year old sister, Claudia, after she passed away. Being a conceptual visual artist, Toledano creates a narrated photobook entitled ‘When I Was Six’ that is formulated through a concoction of still-life images and atmospheric ‘heaven-like’ images in order to put the viewer into the shoes of his six-year-old self, exploring the human psyche.  The way that the photo-book has been pieced together has been done very thoughtfully, thinking about the dream-like images first comes across as some sort of escape from the reality of Claudia’s death for Toledano, imagining these landscapes that connote emotions of peace, vulnerability and freedom from demons in his mind, even as a six year old who wouldn’t be able to process such a devastating concept. How well would a six year old be able to understand death, such a traumatic and disruptive event? Such a trauma to a six year old would be psychologically altering as Philip Toledano wouldn’t of been cognitively ‘ready’ to acknowledge the passing of his sister, giving him the opportunity to meet his sister through the memories of her left behind in a box in the attic, barely spoken about since this ordeal. These still-life images document artifacts from Claudia’s life, her belongings, such as her school pencil, however this also provides documentation of her life too, such as her certificate of death. On the other hand, these ethereal-looking patterns that Toledano incorporates adds form and depth through the changing of direction and movement, representing the fluidity of emotion that could be portraying the loss of control Toledano had over his own at the time of her passing. Toledano ‘placed the photographs with hand-painted, fantasy scenes in order to create narratives of escapism’ (Bull 2009:93) in order to be retrospective of how he felt at the time of the event.

“I don’t have any memories of my life after she died, except for this kind of peculiar fascination with space travel and astronomy. I think it was a way of being somewhere else, far from what had happened.” – Toledano tells Time Magazine

This image particularly resonated with me, capturing Claudia’s school summer dress from when she was nine, placed neatly and cautiously into what seems to be an adult shoe box with the lid off, accustomed by tissue paper underneath. When the image is initially viewed, the high contrast immediately draws the eye due to the tension between the blocked black background and the checked pattern on the dress. This juxtaposition forms an optical illusion as this variance adds drama, making this burst of colour and the textural aspect of the dress look out of place and adds an aspect of solemnity as this looks so awkward. With the box placed just out of centre and pushed off to the side, this adds a sense of the uncanny – the idea that something isn’t quite right. I also find this where the box isn’t placed exactly straight, appearing to have been just pushed into the lens with no real thought behind it. I consider this to be a purposeful action, possibly to symbolise how this box containing all of the objects that are associated with Claudia, including her school uniform, were pushed aside for 40 years unbeknownst to Toledo, only to be discovered once his parents had passed away. The tissue paper behind the dress is crinkled, showing its age as its been discarded for so long. However, I find that this may resemble the memory of Claudia withering away from within the box over the years, specifically due to Toledo stating that ‘I have no memories of my life after my sister’s death for a few years’. What I find is the most motivating factor within Toledano’s image is the lighting technique he has used. This image has been taken from a bird’s eye view using artificial light, however this lighting is in a squared shape, possibly done by using a specific head on the light above or, if he didn’t have the equipment for this, perhaps using different material to create this square outline as it is not entirely perfect. As the lighting has been pushed to the left side to oppose the dress slightly to the right, I feel that this may be reflective of how young Claudia died, explaining why only a partial selection of the dress has been highlighted by this glow. I also feel that this may be representative of that feeling of emptiness and loneliness that we find after a loved one has passed away, as I said before, showing that the beginning stages of grief may lure someone to begin to question their place in the world, what their purpose is. This could be reflective of the shift in Toledano’s family dynamic when he was younger, demonstrating how Claudia wasn’t mentioned much again due to the heartache, making her life slowly disappear into the darkness.

In my own work, I have created similar image types however I wanted to shoot these in locations relevant to my brothers childhood as I feel that this provides more contextual information that is necessary in making my narrative consistent.

I plan to sequence these together, shooting childhood toys outside my brothers old football changing rooms, because I feel that this symbolises the leaving behind of my brothers memory and how the memories of his childhood remain here unobtainable to him due to the severity of his illness at this time. I used opposing angles and distances for these two images and edited them side by side so that I could ensure they had the same tonal range in order to keep congruity. I set them up on this bench as if they were waiting for somebody to collect them, as if they had been lost, in order to represent how I would sit and wait for my brother. I also think that this is effective due to the way the changing rooms look so dull and lifeless when paired with the muted greenery as the entire image looks depressing and lonely due to it being so empty. I think that this has portrayed how segments of both mine and my brothers childhood is left here as if it is left unsolved or unfinished as times changed so quickly once my brother became unwell.

Conclusion

To conclude, the preservation of family memory is interpreted in many different ways in photography. Photographers like Yury Toroptsov use the formal elements to pick apart the environment around them to reveal the hidden echoes of their passed love one that they may encounter in everyday life. By attempting to understand who his father was through death, this offers a fresh approach to the subjects of memory and loss as Toroptsov must try to depict an image of who he was before his passing, and explores how such an abrupt loss at a young age could unconsciously impact him. On the other hand, more subjective photographers such as Philip Toledano incorporate multiple image types; still-life images and fantasy images. This collection of abstract metaphors connotes the suppression and blocking out of painful memories to resist facing a harsh truth of losing a family member. This explores the psychological repercussions of loss and memory. The family album has developed in congruity with technological changes, meaning the way we preserve memories has advanced too.

These concepts have influenced me to be subjective in my work through trying to visually represent an intangible feeling, however it has allowed me to formulate ideas where I can include contextual cues within the background of the environment by going to specific locations that me and my brother share childhood memories at, even if he cannot recall them as easily as me. With 4 photoshoots so far, I initially began with a domestic environment where I used not only different angles of low lighting but also incorporated some of my brothers personal items, using different depths of field, through the inspiration of Toledano’s ethereal images which produced some of my favourite images. I followed this by using objects that relate to my brothers childhood as well as the memories we share with each other and shot these in locations related, using dynamic angles to add drama and solemnity to the images to represent how these memories have been lost and discarded. I feel that this has actively been effective in illustrating how my brother has changed from who he once was as his mental illness has worsened, depicting how it feels so grieve someone who is still present.

Finally, I have used the snapshot aesthetic in my use of archival image experimentation, where I have pixelated and silhouetted my brother. Creating adaptations to the image conveys an effective message of protection at such a vulnerable age for what was about to come in the future where he was susceptible to risks within the world through innocence and naivety. These adaptations change the meaning of the images to compare the past to the present, and represents how these core memories are always thought of.

Bibliography:

Family
Bull, S. (2009), ‘Phototherapy: The Family Album and Beyond‘ in Photography. London: Routledge.

Memory

Kuhn, A. (2003). ‘Remembrance: The Child I Never Was’ in Wells L. (ed) The Photography Reader. London: Routledge

History

Headshots | 2025 Photography A Level Blog

Holland, P (2004), ‘Sweet it is to scan…: personal photographs and popular photography.’ In: Wells, L. (ed.) (2004), Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge

Price, D (2004), ‘Thinking about photography: debates, historically and now.’ In Wells, L. (ed.) (2004), Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge

Turnbow (2023), Before Instagram, There Was Kodak. Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum: https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/instagram-there-was-kodak