The family album may affect the way we look at our past, but what we do with these photographs, how we use them and how we relate with them is really about the present.
These traces of our existence are part of a never-ending process of making, re-making, making sense of, ourselves now.
I think the border between photography and memory is diffuse and impossible to be traced.
Photography can block memory when we only remember what was photographed but also can serve as a trigger for it, when we recall a story by seeing an image.
In addition to the mathematical reference of the terms (Set theory, Family of sets) the title Sets, Subset, Families relates with the strategy I use systematizing
I use a taxonomical classification system (identifying patterns, motifs, specificities) and analysing archives of family photographs using the Grounded Theory – an inductive approach, which involves a process of systematic generation of concepts and theories based on collected data.
Andrei Nacu (n. 1984)
He’s a visual artist based between London/UK and Iasi/Romania. In his creative practice he is using documentary photography, the family album and the photographic archive to create stories which analyse the junction between personal memory and social history. His most recent work includes video, installation and performance and focuses on the politics of representation and media archaeology. He studied photography at the University of Wales, Newport, U.K. and George Enescu National University of Arts, Iasi, Romania. Currently he is working as a photo archivist for the Royal Anthropological Institute.