LIFE STORIES
When my mother was a young girl in Latvia, she was told by a fortune teller that she would cross the sea and marry an Englishman. As unlikely as this seemed to her at the time, it was in fact to be her destiny – in 1944 she, my grandmother and step grandfather fled Latvia to escape the Soviet invasion, eventually settling in Britain after the war. My grandfather, a renowned actor in his home country, remained in Latvia where he lived for his entire life.
These composite images are a collage of photographs, identity photos and documents, personal letters and effects documenting the life stories of my Latvian family. I have used photographs from various family albums portraying their pre-war life in Latvia, their time spent in refugee camps in Germany and their new postwar life in England.
See blog pages for further insights into their life in Latvia.
Handmade accordion book of photographic collages displayed in a Latvian silver cigarette case which crossed the sea with them – a tiny part of their life story.
Digital collage of scanned family photographs, identity photos and documents . Displayed as a hand-made artist book printed on archival matte Hahnemühle Rice Paper, image size 2.5 x 4 in, see Books page. 2024