A Poor Sort of Memory

A POOR SORT OF MEMORY is a collection of photographs made in and around my hometown in the California desert. As I revisit old hideouts in concrete washes and private bunks in rock formations, I am reminded of my youthful desperation to find both a sense of belonging and an independent self. But the past is a like a slippery fish and the more I try to pin it down, the more it escapes my grasp.

Now as I return to these spaces to photograph, I embrace memory as the unreliable narrator and use the tracings of my personal history to craft a new loose photographic fiction. Through metaphor and staged constructions, I explore vulnerability, isolation, and the awkward process of coming of age.

In the image series as well as the photobook maquette, I weave together, landscapes, symbolic objects, and portraiture of my son, Eli, in an effort to use photography as a flawed means of bearing witness to my son’s unique maturation amidst the recollections of my own past long gone.

© Tracy L Chandler - Tree Cave, 2019
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Tree Cave, 2019

© Tracy L Chandler - Eli on Ramp, 2021
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Eli on Ramp, 2021

© Tracy L Chandler - Mini House, 2020
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Mini House, 2020

© Tracy L Chandler - Eli in Sun, 2020
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Eli in Sun, 2020

© Tracy L Chandler - Glass Door, 2021
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Glass Door, 2021

© Tracy L Chandler - Cuffs on Wheel, 2020
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Cuffs on Wheel, 2020

© Tracy L Chandler - Target with Cabbage, 2019
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Target with Cabbage, 2019

© Tracy L Chandler - Prickly Pear with Safety Cone, 2021
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Prickly Pear with Safety Cone, 2021

© Tracy L Chandler - Lot at Sundown, 2021
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Lot at Sundown, 2021

© Tracy L Chandler - Wave at Night, 2020
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Wave at Night, 2020

© Tracy L Chandler - Eli with Stars, 2021
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Eli with Stars, 2021

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