(Photo)autobiographical writing: memory and construction of the self in Peter Beard's photo diaries

Abstract

The (photographic) diary is the perfect affirmation of the photographer as an individual in his will to appear naked before others. When this happens, we witness the total identification of the photographer-narrator with the model and with the observer. It is the "autobiographical (photo) pact" where exploration with language is pushed to the limit, as the inner adventure cannot be expressed with limited writing. This is how Peter Beard conceives his work, a personal commitment that is as much the cause of the photo as its object. A work of introspection in which underlies the taste for contemplation and the need to treasure memories, maximized by the photographic language through the self-portrait and the collage technique. The result is a collection of photographs of the memory of his intimacy that, piled up in his photodiaries, are but the basis of a personal story that wants to be told, perhaps also to be remembered.