Vestiges of Memory - a symposium on the connections between photography and autobiographical memory

Marchbank, Celine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6254-9787 (2024) Vestiges of Memory - a symposium on the connections between photography and autobiographical memory. In: Vestiges of Memory - a symposium on the connections between photography and autobiographical memory, 18-19 July 2024, University for the Creative Arts (UCA), Canterbury.

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Abstract / Summary

The two-day, interdisciplinary research symposium Vestiges of Memory: Intersections between Photography and Autobiographical Memory took place at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Canterbury on 18-19 July 2024. Convened by Dr Sara Andersdotter and funded by UCA, the symposium focused on ways in which 21st century artists, photographic practitioners and other researchers explore the intricate relationships between photography and autobiographical memory.

Celine Marchbank - A Stranger in My Mother’s Kitchen:

As an artist my most significant works have explored autobiographical stories around death, loss and grief.
My work explores complex emotional experiences through delicate quiet everyday domestic details, making work that is warm, familiar and accessible. I presented a body of work A Stranger in my Mother’s Kitchen recently published into a book by Dewi Lewis. This work, made over a five year period, a mixture of photography, writing and archival material, is an exploration of my grieving process whilst retracing my mother’s life and legacy after
her death.

After discovering my mother’s archive of recipes, a collection of 40 years as a head-chef, I felt an overpowering need to do something with these. I wanted to feel the warmth of eating my mother’s food again, to feel the feeling of being nurtured and cared for once more, so I decided to cook all the recipes. This process allowed me to feel closer to her, but it also became a distraction from my grief. The recipes were haunted with memories; the smells took me back to moments we shared like nothing else, and the more I continued the more I felt connected to her. I photographed the process, but this is no cookbook. I wrote about and explored my grief and recovery; this creative process became my grieving process. The action of making allowed me to explore complex and confusing emotions, and learn about my new life as a daughter, a daughter without a mother.

The published work in book form unpacks these layers of memory, grief and time. The recipes are tucked into the pages like a scrapbook of culinary memories, encouraging the reader to take out and cook from. This accessible form allows the viewer to interact and feel involved, and importantly it opens up conversations around their own memories or grief.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Memory, photography, Autobiographical
Subjects:	Communication Health Creative Art & Design > Fine Art Photography Creative Art & Design > Photography Research
Department:	Institute of Photography
Depositing User:	Celine Marchbank
Date Deposited:	19 Mar 2026 13:56
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2026 13:56
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6370

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