Anxiety of Amnesia

Anxiety of Amnesia merges text, original imagery and found archival photographs by two photographers: Andrea Wenglowskyj and her father, Bohdan. The work spans over sixty years and explores ownership, the power of vernacular photography, and the relationship between absence, presence, and loss. It also celebrates the technology of photography, equalizing the use of consumer film cameras from the last half of the Twentieth Century, along with iPhones and professional grade contemporary digital cameras. 

Bohdan was born in Ukraine in 1941 and immigrated to America in 1957. As a young attorney and father, he became a hobbyist photographer and left a trunk full of photos, negatives and their packaging upon his death in 2000. Over twenty years later, Andrea intuitively sought out images of connection, humor, and unintended moments that were not for the family albums. She used her own archive of photographs to create a conversation that is intentionally fractured and applies meaning to the photographic choices she and her father once made. Original text is interspersed on the wall that Andrea wrote during times of sleeplessness and solitude. This imagined narrative allows Andrea to believe that for a brief moment, she and Bohdan are in a present-day conversation, both as adults and parents, but also as his daughter.

See installation views of Anxiety of Amnesia at CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, NY in 2025.