In Loving Memories

Abstract

Longing for cross-temporal, sustained connections, some bereaved will form relationships with photographic portraits of loved ones. These cherished photographs capture more than a fleeting moment – they have the ability to speak across time. Indeed, some become so enmeshed in the remembrance activity that their ability to participate is no longer dependent on the viewable object. Misplaced or (consciously/unconsciously) avoided, these mementoes can take on what I name a “hauntographic” presence – echoing the very phantoms they were meant to commemorate. This paper explores various forms of embellished photographic portraits that reintegrate the likeness of absent individuals into a common temporal frame with the bereaved. Introduced and developed within my research, hauntographs are skeuomorphs – retaining the now-superfluous attributes of objects that, for a time, hosted the now-disconnected remembrance activity. This paper follows the imagination’s role in remembrance as it moves through the photographic medium – through rephotography, spirit photographs, digitally manufactured composites, screenshots – towards an appreciation of photographs that need only be invoked.