The Memory of History
23 December 2017

The Memory of History
(2012)

A nation is a community of individuals united by a collective memory of the past, but the European Union is a community built on collective amnesia. Countries joining the Union over the past three decades have traded their difficult memories of past rivalries, wars and genocides for peace and prosperity, but now the good times are over the past is returning.

Made during travels through ten countries during the height of the European debt crisis, at a point where the European Union appeared dangerously close to fracturing apart, The Memory of History explores the use and abuse of the past in the context of recession.

Rejecting a fixed narrative structure, The Memory of History consists of a box of fifty-six prints and an experimental essay, The History of Memory, composed of twelve short texts chapters on perceptions of history, memory and time. Images and text are mixed freely, resulting in a unique viewing experience every time the box is opened as new connections form, emulating the way the past reconstitutes itself differently each time we attempt to return to it.

Featured in The Week, Photomonitor, Lensculture.com, UAL Alumni News, Hotshoe Magazine, Photoworld China, and The BBC Viewfinder blog.

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Fighter Jet, Sofia, Bulgaria
European Bank Sign, Frankfurt, Germany
Vandalised hoarding, Lisbon, Portugal
Franco era monument, Madrid, Spain.
Former site of the Palast Der Republik, Berlin, Germany
Designer Boutique, Athens, Greece
Honour Guard for the German President, Vienna, Austria
Prussian War Monument, Berlin
Italian Riot Police, Rome, Italy
Memorial to Admiral Horthy, Budapest, Hungary
Bench leg, Budapest, Hungary
Fortune Telling Machine, Thessaloniki, Greece
European Commission Exit, Brussels, Belgium