Inherited photographs and the formation of cultural identities

This paper explores how collected and inherited photographs have become important objects in the formation and articulation of teenagers’ culture and identity. It challenges the fixed nature of their meaning and opens new interpretations in order to better negotiate the unstable pluralist setting to which their owners now belong. Through presenting a case study involving first and second-generation migrant teenagers in an inner-city London school, the paper poses questions around myth, memory and heritage. Using the students’ inherited photographs, this research-led art project will engage the participants in a dialogical inquiry into the commonalties of interpretation. It will explore ways in which meaning can be made and shared to produce new narratives. In addition, it examines how collected family photographs, which have informed fictional narratives of selfhood in London teenagers, can hold the potential for important pedagogical and narrative research.