Annette LeMay Burke

In response to my parents’ deaths, I created the series Memory Building. I projected my parents’ vernacular family photographs onto the surfaces of my childhood home, in the same locations that they were originally made, and rephotographed the scene. By fusing photos from the past onto the present-day walls, I unearthed six decades of engrained memories and captured my family’s vanishing presence that once permeated our mid-century suburban home—the container for so much of my personal history.

Constructing the projected tableaus made the memories more substantive for me, provided solace for my grieving and created a new family pictorial legacy for future generations. With so many formative experiences rooted and intertwined within this building, saying goodbye to it was also saying goodbye to my parents. Even as the rooms were literally whitewashed in preparation for new owners, my memories continued to resonate within the walls.

Welcome

Rumpus Room

Chuck's Corvette

Dining Room Dingy

My Playhouse

Birthday Party

The Hearth

Girl Scouts

Garage Workshop

Snuggies, Remote and Buck

Welcome

Rumpus Room

Chuck's Corvette

Dining Room Dingy

My Playhouse

Birthday Party

The Hearth

Girl Scouts

Garage Workshop

Snuggies, Remote and Buck