Family Photographs - Mining Personal History

About this class

Family Photographs - Mining Personal History

The intimate connection between family photographs and memory became obvious to me when I served as a visiting artist at a retirement community in Ellendale, North Dakota. Most resident’s rooms resembled shrines to their existence. Walls were adorned with framed photographs of significant people and life events. What’s worth remembering was abbreviated to a handful of photographs. Our eight-week class will capitalize on the connection that exists between photography and memory. More specifically, how family photographs function to preserve memories, and thus become catalysts for sharing life stories. Inspiration for our class assignments will include revisiting old family photographs plus making new ones. Open to all ages and all levels of photographers - beginners to advanced. Cell phone cameras are ideal for this class. Cell phone camera instruction will be given as needed.

This is an 8-week virtual class using the Zoom platform.  Tuesdays: Jan 11, 18, 25, Feb 1, 8, 15, 22, March 1, 2-4 pm CST

Roddy McGuiness Roddy MacInnes has been teaching photography at the University of Denver since 2001. He considers himself to be an autobiographical photographer. In that capacity he has been documenting his life through photography since 1964.  He received a Master of Fine Arts in photography from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, and a Bachelor of Arts in photography from Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. His latest photography project, One Thing Leads to Another (working title) was inspired by an album of photographs he discovered in an antiques mall in Denver, Colorado. A North Dakota woman made the photographs in 1917.  Through this project Roddy is exploring issues surrounding the relationships between photography and identity.

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To that end, we encourage our participants to join us in stepping outside our comfort zones and considering other perspectives and ideas by being open-minded while attending HND events featuring scholars who hold a variety of opinions, some being opposite of our own held beliefs.