An image from Souvenirs of Here at the McCord Museum in Montreal, Canada.
Souvenirs of here
Souvenirs of Here: The Photograph Album As Private Archive presented a selection of images from the personal archives of Montrealers of Chinese origin who have preserved their life’s memories in photograph collections.
A true revelation, this exhibition explores how photography is used as a means of remembering.
The 13 photo albums presented in the McCord Museum exhibition contained a number of significant graphic and narrative inventions, giving the works the status of created objects. Rejecting the aesthetic conventions of amateur and family photography, these collectors renewed the album form, not only through photography, but also by incorporating drawing, writing and collage.
Photographs taken from these albums and grouped under eight broad themes portray the life of the Chinese community in Montreal, primarily between 1930 and 1970. Reproductions of the richly decorated pages on which these photographs were placed were also exhibited, in the form of an open book.