So honored to have been included in the extraordinary Winter Garden Project created by my dear friend and collaborator, Odette England.

Keeper of the Hearth Exhibition

The first exhibition of photographs from England’s book Keeper of the Hearth is now open at the Houston Center for Photography and runs through Jan 10, 2021

Exhibition Dates: September 10, 2020 — January 10, 2021

Winter Garden Project

The Winter Garden photograph project marks the 40th anniversary of the book Camera Lucida in 2020. The project was instigated and managed by the artist and writer Odette England.

It comprises two parts. The first is a 320-page edited volume of photographs and texts titled Keeper of the Hearth: Picturing Roland Barthes’ Unseen Photograph (ISBN 9789053309377). The second involves an exhibition of these photographs at the Houston Center for Photography from September 10, 2020 through January 10, 2021.

Camera Lucida (La chambre claire), written by French literary theorist Roland Barthes, is arguably one of the most influential books about photography. Published in 1980, shortly before his death, the book is also a tribute to Barthes’ late mother, Henriette. In it, Barthes describes a treasured snapshot taken in 1898 of Henriette, aged five. This snapshot is known as the Winter Garden photograph. Barthes discusses it at length in Camera Lucida, but never reproduces it. It is one of the most famous unseen photographs in the world.

Odette England invited more than 200 photography-based artists, writers, critics, curators, and historians from around the world to contribute an image and/or text that reflects on Barthes’ unpublished snapshot of his mother.

Essayists in Keeper of the Hearth include Douglas Nickel, Andrea V. Rosenthal Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University; Lucy Gallun, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, the Museum of Modern Art; and Phillip Prodger, Senior Research Scholar, Yale Center for British Art. Foreword by Charlotte Cotton, independent curator and writer.

Keeper of the Hearth is England’s first edited volume. Published by Schilt Publishing, designed by Cara Buzzell. Supported in part by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Image credit: Larry Fink, Farm Landscapes, Martins Creek, PA, March 1984 (1, #35A), courtesy the artist. — Image credit: **Larry Fink**, *Farm Landscapes, Martins Creek, PA, March 1984 (1, #35A)*, courtesy the artist.

Odette has brought together such an amazing group of people in this project I’m just really thankful to be a tiny part of it. My own contribution was a personal one (as I know were many others) concerning the loss of my mother and the struggles and failures I encountered in trying to access her memory. The project beautifully echos a deep, complicated, and resonating sense of Barthes own loss, his inquiry, and the various ways photographers have personalized his text, Camera Lucida.