Memory, Loss, and Legacy: A Photographic Memory: Directed by Rachel Elizabeth Seed

Rachel Elizabeth Seed, Discussant Reyna Cowan PsyD, LCSW

Friday Mar 13, 6:30 PM – 8:45 PM

2nd Fridays

Join us for an intimate psychoanalytic conversation as we delve into A Photographic Memory, a poignant and deeply personal documentary by Rachel Elizabeth Seed. The film traces Seed’s journey to uncover the life and legacy of her mother, acclaimed photographer Sheila Turner-Seed, who died when Rachel was just a baby. In A Photographic Memory, Rachel Elizabeth Seed embarks on a journey to know the mother she never had the chance to remember. Her mother, a gifted journalist and photographer, died suddenly when Rachel was just 18 months old. Decades later, Rachel discovers a box of reel-to-reel audio tapes and photographic archives left behind by her mother—interviews with some of the most iconic photographers of the 20th century, including Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bruce Davidson, recorded for a never-completed project in collaboration with The International Center of Photography. Through intimate archival footage, photographs, and voice recordings—alongside Rachel’s own present-day interviews and reflections—the film blurs the lines between past and present, mother and daughter, memory and imagination. It becomes both a detective story and a personal excavation of maternal loss, creative inheritance, and the ways in which we seek connection with those we have lost. Through these archival interviews, photographs, and personal reflections, the film explores intergenerational memory, absence, and the power of visual storytelling in shaping identity and mourning. In this salon, we will examine the film through a psychoanalytic lens, considering themes such as grief, the unconscious transmission of trauma, and the search for symbolic continuity in the face of early loss.