Photography, Memory, and the Frail Instant

This chapter begins with the idea of the photograph as an integral component in the ecology of memory, exploring the nature of the photograph as key in the sustaining of community identity and knowledge. Focusing on the documentary photographic work and life of Maggie Lee Sayre and Paul Kwilecki, it looks at ways in which memory, imagination, and creativity propel the making of photographs and also are served by the lasting nature of photography. The photographs of Sayre and Kwilecki, born of ordinary life and passing moments, are discussed as key elements the artists' attempt to arrest time–frail instant–and nourish personal and sustainable community-based memory.