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This paper is a starting point for untangling the ways how family photographs and found bits of text can be used to build narratives out of the private sphere. They are considered as objects that carry the values of memory and belonging, and as material that can be used to bring out to the public (collective) experiences of history that are often easily overlooked as being so marginal that they are irrelevant.We start with four photos found in my family archive, and from the memory of the oral stories of my grandmother. We then embark on a brief journey that has the objective of shedding light on how a photograph and a linguistic container connect in need of creating meaning and explaining beyond the image; And on the relations that unfold between the source (being it the subject or the owner of the family photo), the artist, and the public audience. The works of contemporary photographers Martha Rosler, Jim Goldberg, Lorna Simpson, and Gillian Wearing will support these reflections.

Simpson, Lorna --- Rosler, Martha --- Wearing, Gillian --- Goldberg, Jim --- Berger, John --- Sontag, Susan