Process of selecting images

            My main corpus for this project will be made up of photographs and images of my grandparents that represent their life before and after moving to Canada. There was a vast amount of photographs that I went through with the help of my aunt and mother to narrow down what was the most important. After discussing the different options for categorizing photographs at our Tuesday meeting, I decided to compartmentalize the lives of my grandparents into three themes: Marriage and Love, Family and Growing Up, and Legacy. I found that a non-linear set of categories was helpful so that I could broaden my understanding of my grandparents’ experience rather than try to site chronological events.  I also chose to do broad themes instead of a strict linear set of classifications because it is more difficult to pinpoint exact dates of photographs than letters, for example, which often will have the date written on them.

            Because I am working with the histories of two people, I chose a larger portion of photographs for each grandparent that I will eventually narrow down. If there were similar photographs of the same subject matter, I chose images that I felt best represented both the emotions of the subject and their physical surroundings. For example, I chose to include a photograph from my grandparent’s wedding where they are laughing with each other, so that personality can shine through. In another category, I chose a photograph of my grandparents visiting Niagara Falls with their third child to show how they explored and were interested in Canadian landmarks.

            The themes themselves are also fluid in their meaning. For example, the Marriage and Love category represents marriage and love in the literal sense, for Pierina and Rino together, as well as the marriage between two countries, Italy and Canada. This is why I decided to choose photographs from their wedding day, and photographs of the two visiting Italy in their later years. This was my solution to the issue of trying to separate Canada and Italy. I could not have one category for each country because my grandparents did return to their homeland and of course, had an ongoing relationship with both nations.

            For the second category, Family and Growing Up, I take a more literal approach and include photographs of each of their families as well as photographs of my grandparents themselves roughly between the ages of eighteen and their early twenties. For my third category, Legacy, I include photographs of my grandparents settling in Canada, as well as their children and grandchildren. This was a very important aspect for me to show because I am interested in how their life decisions to uproot and move to Canada have led to the quality of life I, my cousins and my siblings are able to have. Through my collection of images, which may be supplemented with other documents including passports, postcards and milestone certificates (such as getting married) I hope to paint a diverse picture of the lives of my grandparents.