Liz Steketee


Reconstructed Memories
by Liz Steketee


"Reconstructed Memories" is a unique print series that uses my personal family photographs to rewrite history from my vantage point.


By choosing unrelated images and digitally manipulating them into unlikely combinations, I build new memories. I forge new relationships, address old confrontations, imagine different experiences, and face old demons. I disrupt linear narratives and recompose events, establishing my family history as a construct. The notion of veracity of memory is challenged through this process. New images often fell more “real” than their originals. This rebuilding of my history has allowed me to establish my own version of reality, as I prefer it. Our imaginations and our memory are not so different in my estimation.


Once these new snapshots have been finalized digitally, they are printed, aged and weathered according to their appropriate time period. Reconstructed Memories takes the form of a unique print series as well as a series of reconstructed “false” family photo albums that adhere to my revisionist history. There is a thrill in the power of altering history, of remaking memories that haunt us. Reconstructed Memories acts as catharsis, and as a reminder that true memory is fluid and mutates through time.


  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero01.jpg

    1/31 | Daddy and Elizabeth Christmas 197O.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero02.jpg

    2/31 | The Warner sisters with Aunt Sallie’s paintings from Dad’s attic.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero03.jpg

    3/31 | John, cousin Susie, and Elizabeth, Grand Rapids, m I, 1968.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero04.jpg

    4/31 | Evelyn and Marge with Elizabeth. They never did get along well.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero05.jpg

    5/31 | George, Maxine, and me with the Maloney’s in Fairfax, CA ’75. My chocolate bunt cake was always their favorite.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero06.jpg

    6/31 | Daddy at another of mother’s garden parties. They always ended up in a fight after parties.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero07.jpg

    7/31 | Fred comes to town for our wedding, Jackson, 1961. Peter found him at St. Mary’s again the next morning.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero08.jpg

    8/31 | Mother and Daddy visit Scott at school.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero09.jpg

    9/31 | Jim and Marge on their summer Barnum’s tour, 1959.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero10.jpg

    10/31 | Mills 1960. Janice brought her niece to school for the semester.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero11.jpg

    11/31 | Scott visited me at Mills my freshman year, and stayed for a week. I think he had a good time. Hard to tell.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero12.jpg

    12/31 | Mother with her peacock, Lawrence, practicing again. I was never allowed to join them when the practiced.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero13.jpg

    13/31 | Steketee family reunion, Lake Michigan, 1938. Dad’s aunt Mame refused to take off her fur, claiming it made her feel as if she had never left New York. Walter and Evelyn join this year but Marion barely spoke top them.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero14.jpg

    14/31 | Margret Powers, Walter’s aunt. She was a handsome woman, but she never did get married.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero15.jpg

    15/31 | Barbara and her mother Marge who was very difficult to please,1956.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero16.jpg

    16/31 | Aunt Maureen comes to visit us from SF in Northwoods, MI. She scared Elizabeth a bit I think..

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero17.jpg

    17/31 | Margret White, Marion’s niece, Syracuse, NY, 1968.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero18.jpg

    18/31 | Jackson High School Glee Club singers at the holiday concert, 1958.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero19.jpg

    19/31 | Grandfather White, “Bompy”. He was a serious man.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero20.jpg

    20/31 | Grandmother Steketee’s confirmation at St. Isabella’s. She was a pistol.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero21.jpg

    21/31 | Grandfather Steketee’s brother Campbell in front of the family home with staff members Elsie and Richard.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero22.jpg

    22/31 | Great Grandfather Bergeson as a boy, Racine, WI, 1927.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero23.jpg

    23/31 | Grandfather Steketee in his sandbox with cousins, Grand Rapids.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero24.jpg

    24/31 | Ella Thoran Powers, Mother’s aunt. She always had the most interesting friends. A bit of a night owl as well, to my memory.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero25.jpg

    25/31 | Cornelius Steketeee, Jan’s son and Piternella’s brother. He was a bit of an eccentric even at this young age.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero26.jpg

    26/31 | Unknown Powers infant, believed to not have survived childhood. Tintype.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero27.jpg

    27/31 | Eloise Powers, 1893, Racine? She was believed to be the mother of the afore pictured infant. Tintype.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero28.jpg

    28/31 | Uncle Jan Steketee’s daughter Piternella. She was partial to Jan’s theater suits for daily dress, but had none of his theatrical flair. Zeeland, MI. Tintype.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero29.jpg

    29/31 | Anoek Vondelkerk with Benjamin Anoek Steketee, Borsele, Nl 1861. Tintype.

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero30.jpg

    30/31 | Benjamin Anoek Steketee, Borsele, NL Age 4. Ready for a day of duck hunting with Father. Tintype

  • http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/steketee/photos/recmemzonezero31.jpg

    31/31 | Mother and Daddy, Racine, WI, 1946.

statement

stop play

"Reconstructed Memories" by Liz Steketee.Copyright © 2010 by Zonezero
Web design: Ehekatl Hernández. Picture Editor: Nadia Baram. Webmaster: Alejandro Malo


 
Share This
|
More