a priori 

A Family’s Secret "a priori ” exposes the stories of individuals, whose attempts to make sense of memories, anecdotes, and facts eventually led to the disclosure of their Jewish heritage. My project documents the discovery of a family secret as told by 16 individuals. The secret had been conceived out of necessity and preserved, sometimes for generations, out of fear and sometimes shame. 

In addition to black and white prints and video recordings of my participants, I transcribe their stories on large sheets of vellum, thus exploring affinities between the verbal and the visual. I regard the fluid process of listening, hearing my participants’ voices and accents, translating the

words into letters, and eventually marks on the page as a meditative, ritualistic act.