The Act of Perpetuation
These images of a family gathering in the mountains of Tuscany explore how we use photography to create parallel narratives for our lives and how those narratives often exist in tension with reality. The nature of vacation space—separate from other relationships, removed from daily stressors—creates in us a certain playfulness of action and imagination, allowing us to envision an idealized future that echoes the ideal present.
In this space, the camera has two roles: observing and shaping. It captures both the observed moments in which the subjects are unable to control the visual narrative and the staged moments which express our ideals and hopes. The project explores the tension between these distinct narratives, echoing the tension between our hopes and our fears for the future. It asks whether we can curate our own narratives and if so, to what extent the curated story influences our actual lives. The project’s title, “The Act of Perpetuation”, hints at our desire to both preserve ideal moments and to control the narrative being created about our lives.
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