My analysis looks at the way that scrapbooks are used as a self-reflective way to see what we are prioritizing or focused on in different moments in life. I look at my own scrapbook of my travels abroad to the United Kingdom in the August of 2011 until December of 2012 as my own personal genre of self (Katriel 2). This scrapbook was created in the Spring of 2013 following my return as a suggested coping mechanism to readjusting to the return to Georgetown and Southwestern University. This was not a singular experience, and many of the people during their return from being abroad experience this post-travel depression as they adjust to everyday life in their lives back home. During my adjustment period, I worked on this scrapbook, often as a way to relax after a long day, and in order to reflect on memories that were only singular to me, a South Asian daughter of immigrants, who traveled to another country full of immigrants. I do not want to leave out the cultural context of my South Asian experience because it is clearly pictured in multiple pages of the book, and represented an important aspect of my experience abroad.

Prior to my departure to London, I spent a lot of time thinking about if I would be comfortable living in the country that historically colonized my people. Granted that was some time ago, but in the range of cultural memory, it hasn't even been 100 years, and I still feel that it is a raw moment in South Asian history, and will be for a very long time. The scrapbook pictures how that tension came out, and how I dealt with that tension, by finding community in different places and experiences. The scrapbook certainly has run of the mill photos of stereotypical touristy moments, but it also has a lot of photos of other people, the members of my study abroad cohort, teachers and guides who made my experience extra special, as well as friends made in London and beyond. Moreover, it pictures places/buildings that meant something to me.

Due to the therapeutical use of this scrapbook, and the context in which it was created, I analyze it as a conversation with myself, a twenty something college student, trying to review the last 4-5 months of my life as an idealized experience that I assume a future me will want to review (which has proven to be true). In my initial perusal of this scrapbook, it came off as a chronological collection of the most memorable moments in my travel, but looking upon it, it's incredibly detailed, including tickets, stamps, commentary, programs, etc-lots external elements meant to place these photos in a much more deeply embedded cultural experience that consisted of pop culture references, art, entertainment, novelties, tourist highlights, as other such moments. These elements don't all place the scrapbook within cultural contemporary context, but in 10 years, it will certainly be interesting to review London in pre-Olympics season, just after the London Riots took place, and in the next decade of the millennium.

This essay is not meant to serve as some sort of historical documentation of a moment in history, but as one persons cultural and visual narrative account of that time in history, within its historical context of August, 2011. As Berger states, "we never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves" (Rose 13). He reminds us that everyday, personal relics, such as scrapbooks, can often provide insight and depth when placed in the context of the world around them. Since this was only a little less than two years ago, it is not too hard for me to place this in its context.

This scrapbook is a visual object that I can show others, but the process of remembering that was involved in putting the pages together was one that was very personal and very intimate. As such, scrapbooks are very honest cultural artifacts that reveal all sorts of details about a person, their values, their judgments, and their personality. For this reason, even writing this paper is self-reflective, and engages me with the scrapbook in a very singular way, sincerely putting me into conversation as it's only intended audience member. The methodology of this paper uses the "Making Pictures" method as outlined by Gillian Rose as a framework for looking at this scrapbook. More specifically, I will use the photo-documentation method of that method to look at what my scrapbook illustrates about the value of memories and what we choose to remember.

To return to the scrapbook page, click here.