War and Memory: Photographer Brigitte Carnochan

Brigitte Carnochan’s effort to understand her own story takes the form of a series of photographic collages that draw a map of her life by using random, tangible artifacts her parents left behind—photos, documents, notes, and letters—which she reorders within a larger historical context. In this program, Carnochan will share her images and describe her effort to shape her story from the surviving fragments of her parents’ lives and relate it to the lives of others.

Brigitte Carnochan was born in Germany in 1941. Her father left to fight with Rommel in Africa when she was eighteen months old. She didn’t see him again or hear anything about him for thirty-three years—long after she had immigrated to the United States with her mother and American stepfather. Her German father had also immigrated to the United States but, out of deference to her new life, never contacted her. Suddenly, in 1976, like a New Year’s gift, a letter arrived from him, taking her completely by surprise, and inviting her—if she was willing—to meet with him and his new family. In its outlines, hers is a familiar story of the displacements and losses of war.

This program will feature a post-lecture book signing reception with Brigitte Carnochan.

Brigitte Carnochan
Photographer
Brigitte Carnochan’s photographs are exhibited and published in journals nationally and internationally, including four books and a number of catalogues, including Imagining Then: A Family Story, 1941–47, published by the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel to accompany her 2012 exhibition. During the last fifteen years she has taught often in the Continuing Studies Program.