Interview with Beth Belaschky
Artist’s Work Table
Can you share a little bit about yourself and your practice?
I am a multidisciplinary photographic artist. My work explores the spaces between memory, transformation, and the seen and unseen. My practice investigates how photographs can move beyond the traditional image becoming tactile objects that invite a deeper, more personal connection with the viewer. Through materials such as fabrics, wax, paper and most recently clay, I like to explore the photograph as something living—something that can be held, altered and experienced in new ways. My work with family archives and photographs embedded into clay represents a new direction in my practice where image and object come together to consider remembrance, identity, and what remains.
When/how did you begin working with vintage photographs? What is their significance within your work?
Although my mother passed away in 2017, it wasn't until recently that I recovered my family's archive of photographs. Discovering them felt like opening a conversation across generations. It was electric! Through these images I am learning so much; not only about my family but in the beauty of working with family archives and found images. Working with these images is a new direction in my practice, allowing me to reflect on memory, connection and the emotional ties we hold to the past.
Artist’s Family Archives
What themes are you exploring within your work?
What Remains explores memory, identity, and impermanence. I chose clay because it physically mirrors what happens to us over time—it cracks, breaks, softens, and slowly returns to the earth. By rubbing away and removing part of the image, I'm reflecting on the ways our identities shift and change throughout our lives. My mother's story became central to this work as I considered how her sense of self evolved through the many roles she carried as a sister, daughter, woman, wife, and mother. The work asks what remains after time, love, loss and memory have shaped us.
What draws you to a specific image(s) when you begin a new artwork?
Connection is always the starting point. I'm drawn to photographs that carry an emotional weight or a quiet mystery—something I can't fully explain. Sometimes it’s an expression, a gesture, or simply a feeling that lingers. I trust that instinct and allow the image to reveal what it wants to become through the process.
What is a dream project you would like to bring to life in the next few years?
My hope is simply to keep following where this work leads. As I continue exploring my family's archive, I can see What Remains growing into a more immersive installation. If one day it found its place in a museum or gallery, allowing others to experience it in that way, it would feel like a beautiful continuation of that journey.
