RACHEL SCHAFFRAN

"THE LIFE OF M.B. SLAWSON"

Collage, Color Photography

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:
The text in this book is excerpted from a journal kept by Manessah Barnes Slawson, an ancestor on my paternal grandmother's side. This journal was re-typed and amended by Esther Keeney Shorely, his granddaughter after his death. His was among many journals and family documents which my grandmother collected over the course of her life. The clothes used in the images were my grandmother's when she was a baby. This book addresses the idea of piecing together memory with the information, material, and language available to each generation.