"Magic" Memories is a interplay of family, labour, and self-representation through the family archive. Glimpsing into the lives of working-class women, capturing moments where the boundaries between private and public spheres blur, where the personal becomes inseparable from waged work.

Drawing from my own family archives where the photographs predominately depict women - in this instance my mother, grandmother, and myself - all engaged in various forms of labour. These images, taken with an intention to be cheerful mementos, often by men, reveal a deeper narrative about the realities of working-class life. Rather than documenting leisure and joy, our family album is a testament to continuous toil and the facade of happiness maintained for the sake of respectability.

Each photograph is a complex blend of genuine smiles and underlying exhaustion. These images encapsulate the dual reality of women who are expected to display contentment while shouldering the burdens of the unrelenting productive and reproductive labour that they/we do. Challenging the traditional notion of family albums as repositories of private moments, for us, work and family life are intertwined, with snapshots of labour representing significant familial bonds and shared experiences of work.

“Magic” memories is not a romantic homage to the resilience and fortitude of working-class women, but a critique which sheds light on their uncelebrated contributions and the performances they navigate daily. It invites viewers to reconsider the narratives within their own family albums and the broader societal implications of class and labour in the portrayal of familial history. Transforming ordinary snapshots into a commentary on the intersection of work, family, and identity, visualising the unseen labour that forms the backbone of many families' stories.