Sasha Woolley - Family Secrets 1908-1999

Exhibition: 29 May to 29 June, 2002

Sasha Woolley

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We are distinguished from one another by details - the curl of our hair, the way we hold a pen, the way we fold our clothes or make our beds. Sasha Woolley's series, 'Family Secrets 1908 - 1999' is a journey through detail to explore family, identity and photography.

'Family Secrets 1908-1999' features large-scale pairings of photographic images. On one side are fragments of old family photographs re-imaged (re-imagined). The details - so often searched for a key to understanding a family member (how they stood, how they smiled and the clothes they wore) have been isolated and enlarged. On the other side are colour photographs of the spaces these people once inhabited, now empty except for the suggestion and remains of their life - a belt flung over a chair - a suitcase beneath a bed - a drawer full of cutlery.

Woolley's photographic eye lingers over these details becoming part archaeologist, part story-teller, part detective. She creates a body of images which evoke the soul of these houses and their inhabitants.