Elena-Catalina Toltica

︎ @elenacatalinaphotography

︎ www.elenacatalinaphotography.co.uk

︎ up894960@myport.ac.uk

This project explores ideas of memory, migration and self-representation through significant objects and family heirlooms. I believe that objects become tools in which a person’s identity is imprinted, and by using photography to capture this gives the viewer a different perspective on the object itself.

As I had to move from Romania very suddenly, I only got the chance and possibility to take a few things with me when moving to England. This sequence of images includes photographs from old family albums, objects I kept through the transition, both cultural and personal. They represent my past but also who I am as a Romanian woman. Although the sequence follows a storyline, the images are also paired depending on colour and pattern. Old photographs from the family archive are overlapped onto images I took of the handmade embroidered textiles. This creates a sense of reflection from a present point of view onto a past memory or object.

I have researched theories on memory, material culture and migration, whilst looking at other artists engaging with the same ideas. Exploring the relationship between human and object, the home and the migrant self, helped me depict my identity and explore past memories.