onfabulation.

A confabulation is a fantasy that has unconsciously emerged as a factual account in memory. A confabulation may be based partly on fact or be a complete construction of the imagination.

"This story is based on actual events. In certain cases incidents, characters and timelines have been changed for dramatic purposes. Certain characters may be composites, or entirely fictitious."

Hollywood

In this series of photographs I am using the family snapshot to explore fact and fiction in the photograph. I am particularly interested in the snapshot as a keeper of memories and how we (re)construct our past by looking at these snapshots. As someone with a really bad memory I often find that when looking through family photo albums I am using the photographs to fill in the blanks in my past. Events that I had totally forgotten about suddenly become clear again because the photograph is there to prove it actually happened. The weird sensation I often have though, is that not until I come face to face with the photograph can I actually recall that event.

The idea behind this series is that if these family snapshots are shaping my past, then what would happen if you add or replace photographs in the family album. If photography is a surrogate for memory can you falsify these memories by creating fake family snapshots?

In 1969 my mom died of cancer. I was 10 years old and of course this event had a huge impact on our family. Family life came to a stand still and my happy childhood was over. When I browse through the family photo albums there is a clear separation of before and after that fateful event. Before my moms’ death there were lots of photographs of our family doing family stuff. This is the period my dad refers to as: “the times we were still happy”. For a while after my mom’s death one or two photographs were added to the family photo album every year but at some point this stopped all together.

With this series of photographs, I want to fill this void in the family photo album. I am going to pretend that nothing happened and fill the family album with those happy Brady Bunch moments that I know from TV and that I always thought that my family got robbed of.

• Resume: Toni Hafkenscheid