Pencils of Light: Family, Photography, and Performance

<p>This study examines the ways in which the photograph is an act of performance. Not only does the photograph serve as a photograph for its audience, the photograph's viewer uses the photograph to perform for his or herself. This relationship between photograph and viewer is most often explored within the family unit. Ritualized family performances are those events where a family narrative is written photographically. This study explores this family dynamic of photography and performance through autobiographic reference to the author's own familial performances when her parents died in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Through the creation and public performance of her narratives surrounding the performances of grief that surrounded her family photographs, the author argues for the public creation of a three-dimensional memory, compared to the two-dimensional memory of the traditional photograph.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Only Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Year dc:date.available

2009

Author dc:creator

• Darnell, Amy Lynn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stucky, Nathan

• Auto-performance
• Cinema
• Memory
• Performance Studies
• Photographs
• Photography

Repository record dc:identifier

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/304

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:opensiuc.lib.siu.edu:dissertations-1304