The Inland Lighthouse

Abstract

This chapter looks at an investigation of personal history as a study of an apartment, and its inhabitants in the neighbourhood of El Retiro in Madrid, as seen through the gaze of a returning migrant. The apartment, the contents therein, and the biographies and its inhabitants for over 100 years are explored as a site of memory. To do this, the author has applied Pierre Nora's concept of ‘Lieux de memoire' to undertake a study and photographic interpretation of this location. Sites of memory are considered ‘places, sites, causes' in three senses: ‘material, symbolic, or functional'. A place need not have a physical location to be considered a site of memory: objects, photographs, colours, sounds, scents have as much bearing significance as a monument and become equal players in the act of remembering. Taking this as a departure point, the photographic and autoethnographic process of documentation and reflection used expand beyond that of a literal record to one in which interpretation, speculation, and fictionality have been applied in the creation of images and visual narratives.