What remains
Family snapshots, souvenirs, old tickets. Everyone seems to own these immediate substitutes for vacations, celebrations or private events to keep these memories for the future. But what happens to the special moments, when we don't have a camera, there is no souvenir shop near by or if it is just a personal feeling? What do we do with these personal moments that we would like to prevent from forgetting?
Found objects, self-made things and drawings tell silent stories of the past in this project. Left in a layer of obscurity the objects provide only quiet hints of what was and what is still present. The photographed items were witness to the event or were created later.
They are the memories of three women, the grandmother/mother, the aunt/daughter and the granddaughter/niece, summarized in one place and referencing each other.
Lena Oehmsen is the last one in this sequence of remembering. She doesn't only document the memories of the previous generations, but combines these with her own using photography, video and found objects.
The images combining the three points of view of the family members allow the viewer to find his/her own memories in them.
What remains, c-prints, 50 × 50 cm, 2010