In Transparent, British-Spanish photographer William Josephs Radford returns to his childhood family album and removes his father. Printed as lenticular photographs, each image shifts between presence and absence as the viewer moves. The series meditates on reconstructive memory: how we rebuild the past from fragments, inherited stories and the photographs we trust.
Photography William Josephs Radford
Transparent explores the unstable relationship between memory, absence, and family narrative through a series of lenticular photographs drawn from my childhood family album. By removing my father from the original images, his presence becomes something that can simultaneously appear and disappear, shifting between what is remembered and what remains visually documented.
The process of reconstructing these photographs became an investigation into reconstructive memory: the way we rebuild the past from fragments, photographs, stories, and assumptions. The images containing personal belongings were particularly revealing, as I found myself reconstructing the spaces around him according to how I remembered them rather than simply reproducing what was there.
Family narratives further complicate this process. Some memories are not experienced directly but inherited through repeated stories and photographs, becoming vicarious memories that can feel as authentic as lived experience. Removing him from these images made me question how much of my own childhood memory is anchored in reality, and how much has been shaped by the stories told about it.
The lenticular process makes this uncertainty physical. As the image shifts between presence and absence, the photograph becomes a space where memory is continually reconstructed – never entirely fixed, and never entirely lost.
“Removing him from these images made me question how much of my own childhood memory is anchored in reality, and how much has been shaped by the stories told about it.”
About William
William Josephs Radford, a British-Spanish fine art photographer born in rural Andalucía to British parents. Growing up between two cultures shaped how he sees the world and continues to influence his work, particularly the fascination with identity, beauty and society’s contradictions. He discovered photography at fifteen and went on to study Fine Art Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, graduating with First Class Honours. Today, he uses photography to explore difficult and often provocative subjects, from sexuality and spirituality to mortality and memory, creating visually beautiful images that invite viewers to look beyond the surface.
To see more of his work, visit his website or follow him on Instagram
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