When Caroline Furneaux’s father Colin died suddenly in 2011, she discovered an archive of 35mm slides that he had shot during the 1960s. They were a beguiling series of beautiful women photographed in idyllic locations, mostly in Sweden, where he was working and living. It was during this time that he had first met Caroline’s Swedish mother, Barbro, yet hardly any of the photographs were of her.
Who were these girlfriends? For Furneaux, they evoked off-duty film stars from a bygone era. They were everyday goddesses encapsulating the essence of youth and Scandinavian summers: short and intensely sweet. Sleuth-like, she scoured the photographs, cropping and enlarging tiny fragments, looking for clues as to who the women might be and how her father might have met them. She showed them to family members, but they didn’t recognise any of them.
She began writing her own responses to these images, creating characters and entwining them with memories from her own childhood and summers spent in Sweden.
As the work progressed, Furneaux realised that what she was really trying to unlock was the identity of this young man, and the complex father he would become. By some miracle of light and time, these magnificent strangers had connected her with this insouciant version of her father, and given their relationship a new life.
Caroline Furneaux
Caroline is a London-based photographer and writer. She graduated with an MA in Photography from LCC and a BA in English Literature from QMC, University of London.
Caroline is driven by research-led self-initiated projects. She is interested in the interplay between images and words and the symbiotic relationship between photography and literature.
The Mothers I Might Have Had is her response to the discovery of a box of 35mm slides shot by her late father in the 1960s and depicts a beguiling series of beautiful women photographed in idyllic locations, mostly in Sweden. For Caroline these girlfriends evoked off-duty film stars from a bygone era; everyday goddesses encapsulating the essence of Scandinavian summers and youth: short and intensely sweet.
Sleuth-like, she scoured the photographs, cropping and enlarging tiny fragments, looking for clues as to who the women might be and how her father might have met them. But soon she realised that what she was really trying to unlock was the identity of this young man, and the complex father he would become.
She began writing her own responses to the images, creating characters and entwining them with memories from her own childhood and summers spent in Sweden.
By some miracle of light and time, these magnificent strangers had connected her with this insouciant version of her father, and given their relationship a new life.
Images from The Mothers I Might Have Had have been exhibited at FORMAT International Photography Festival and featured in the RPS Journal of Contemporary Photography. This is Furneaux’s first book
www.carolinefurneaux.com
