TRACYFISH

My photographs utilize visual reflection and metaphor of my relationship to memory and place as a Jewish Woman. Through memory, it is possible to acquire a connection to a place or feel a sense of home, even one that is lost. Memory becomes vital, especially within a history that so often sought to create a home when life had always been one of exile. As time passes, the connection of these ideas has become a shadow within my transitory lifestyle. A grandchild of immigrants, I continue to observe my family age from afar and reflect on their Jewish immigrant experiences, expulsions, and complicated narratives.

In this work I continue to investigate the fallible nature of anecdote and memory through my photographs and family archive. These glimpses become a blur of truth and fiction comprised of constructed moments and fragmented recollections. I visually recall the splintered and often forgotten people and history of my ancestry, at times entwined with my own experiences. The identities remain obscured to reflect on both the forgotten and the remembered. When my self-portrait is present, it exists only in shadows to mirror the suppression of my identity from facing Anti-Semitism throughout my life. The further I've pushed on, the more I've felt woven within the history of this diaspora.