After her mother’s stroke, Lara Porzak taped photos around her hospital bed. This book reveals what this taught her about memory and the power of photography

When American fine art photographer Lara Porzak's mother suffered a massive stroke, her memory was severely impacted. Porzak, recognizing the importance of familiar surroundings, surrounded her mother's hospital bed with photos of loved ones and places they had visited together. This helped her mother regain some memories of her identity and life experiences. Over the past decade, her mother has learned to write with a pen, use a fork, and walk again, though she still requires constant care and now lives with Porzak.

Porzak's book, "The Chemistry of Memory," showcases her photographs from 1993 to 2025, combining old-fashioned, non-digital photographic methods with vintage cameras and lenses from the late 1800s. She often creates one-of-a-kind tintypes, using labor-intensive processes that yield unpredictable results with swirls, drips, and stains on the images. This unorthodox approach amplifies the nostalgic and ephemeral qualities of memory.

Using these traditional techniques, Porzak captures a variety of scenes, from horses and butterflies to wide American landscapes. The images often possess an antique, half-remembered feel, which she believes encapsulates the essence of memory – both the past and the present. Porzak herself considers photography to be a form of time travel, preserving moments in time and feeling through her images.

In her introduction, Porzak aims to evoke a sense of memory in her readers, hoping they will connect with the book and create their own memories through its pages. "The Chemistry of Memory" is published by Damiani and retails for £65 / $85 / €75.