Laura Letinsky

Who is Laura Letinsky?

Laura L. Letinsky is a Canadian contemporary photographer, best known for her still lifes.

Much of Letinsky's work alludes to human presence, without including any actual figures. For example, in the Morning and Melancholia, and the I Did Not Remember I Had Forgotten series, Letinsky seems to document the aftermath of a sumptuous gathering or dinner party. Faded flower petals intermingle with empty glasses and crumbs of food on partially cleared tables, often covered with a white linen that bears the mark of spilled wine. As alluded in the title Morning and Melancholia these scenes are often filled with a fresh, clear light, as though one is viewing from the perspective of the morning after, what the host failed to clean up the evening before. However, the title of the series itself is a reference to an essay by Freud, "Mourning and Melancholia," which discusses the human response to loss. The title I Did Not Remember I Had Forgotten also has a literary source; it refers to a line by St. Augustine, commenting on memory, "One would never say I did not remember I had forgotten." Letinsky responded:

I was thinking, "No, that's not right!"