Nowhere Anyhow

11 photos, 277 words, 2 minutes and 47 seconds.

This photo film is built from photographs I made at the age of ten (stuffed animals, my mom taking a nap), combined with images from adulthood (window frames, a monsoon storm, a highway overpass). The only picture I didn’t take is a family photo taken by my adoptive father, an amateur photographer. The narrative is from a short story I wrote based on a singular memory; it represents a composite of family experiences that circle the fact of my closed adoption, the mystery of my biological heritage, and the abuse of my adoptive father.

The StoryCenter frequently uses this video in their workshops, and it is one of their featured stories in Seven Stages: Stories and the Human Experience (Lambert, 2014). It has screened at the Summer Words Literary Festival in Aspen and the Digital Storytelling Festival in Wales.