"Once I had recognized the taste of the crumb of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime flowers which my aunt used to give me…immediately the old gray house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like the scenery of a theater."
Remembrance of Things Past. Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust

The memory of things that we have long forgotten can sometimes be returned to our consciousness by whispers from the past. For Swann it was the crumbs of a madeleine. They brought back to him his aunt’s room, and it was as if he stood in it once again. A few bars of music or the smell of spring rain can also summon captivating memories.

These photographs of well-used, everyday things may evoke associations with a special time or place. They were taken in several old houses in Maine and a jam factory in Massachusetts. The sight of a lace curtain, an old pot or a white pitcher could be the beginning of finding a memory that has slipped away from us for years. These photographs are merely whispers. Our minds fill in the details.