| Abstract | This article explores the use of photography in the little-known novelLa perdita di Diego(1992) by Carla Cerati. Photographs in Cerati’s book appear as material objects that are sought out and scrutinized as part of an active practice of remembering. They are also interrogated for their potential to shed light on an inexplicable loss and make sense of life histories. Death, loss, absence, objectification and reality are issues emerging from the three main types of photographs verbally described in Cerati’s story: photographs of social events occurring in the 1970s, photographic portraits, and domestic photographs. By reading the book alongside Cerati’s ideas on her work and aspects of her private and artistic life, the article discusses the way photographs and narrative participate in performances of memory, the construction of stories and the (re)construction of history in personal, interactive, collective and public contexts.
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