Movies

Daughter Uncovers 300,000 Photos Her Mother Left Behind

BBG News

Different routes can be taken by items we pass on after our death. Some might end up at an estate sale, a Goodwill store, or displayed proudly on a mantlepiece or in a cherished photo album. Others may become treasured heirlooms worn around the neck or ring finger of a family member. And then there are items that are carefully preserved, as if they’re waiting to be rediscovered at just the right time.

In 1978, when Sheila Turner Seed, a journalist and photographer, tragically passed away from a brain aneurysm at 42, her husband Brian Seed, also a photographer, was left to raise their daughter Rachel Elizabeth Seed, who was just 18 months old at the time. Growing up without her mother, Rachel recalls having only a vague understanding of Sheila, pieced together from the stories her father repeated. As she matured and developed her own photographic skills, she felt a deep desire to comprehend the mother she had never met.

It wasn’t until Rachel was in her late 20s that she discovered the full scope of her mother’s work: approximately 300,000 photographs, numerous journal entries spanning hundreds of pages, and over 50 hours of audio recordings. This vast collection of analog materials offered a wealth of insights into Sheila’s character, voice, and perspective on life—essentially, a glimpse into her life as a whole.

To put it simply, Seed didn’t need to venture far; she found what she was looking for right where the International Center of Photography (ICP) was located in New York City. In early 2011, she was employed to catalog the audiovisual records stored within this center. The ICP, established by her father’s former mentor and close friend, Cornell Capa—the renowned photographer—had tasked Seila with a career-defining project called Images of Man. Over the years, Seila had interviewed numerous famous photographers around the globe, including Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris and Bruce Davidson in New York. When Rachel inquired about the project’s raw materials, her father initially thought they might have been misplaced. However, he later revealed that he had sent them to Capa after Seila’s demise, so it was possible they were stored somewhere within the ICP’s basement all along.

Lo and behold, there were twelve boxes, resembling a time capsule, sitting there,” she declares. “Awaiting discovery like a present yet unwrapped.” The laborious and emotional task of opening this present would eventually lead to Seed’s own project, a film titled “A Photographic Memory“. This movie will be shown in theaters nationwide this summer, following festival screenings; its New York City debut is set for June 27. The film raises a thought-provoking question: can a connection be formed with someone who’s no longer here, through the remnants of their life? After more than a decade, Seed found her answer, and it was yes—at least for her.

Excavating a life

In the first interview Sheila played for Seed, it was Cornell Capa himself they heard. This conversation took place in Capa’s old office at ICP, which remained unchanged after his passing in 2008. His pencil jar sat exactly as he left it, and a photograph of his renowned photographer brother Robert Capa adorned the wall. Sitting in Cornell Capa’s chair, listening to her mother’s voice, Seed explained that the sensation could only be described as “stepping into a time machine.” The audio quality was so vivid, she added, “it felt like I was actually there with them, as if time stood still.

One of the most delightful aspects of immersing myself in the reels was experiencing the everyday moments that added charm to the musings of 20th century greats. I remember vividly an instance where Sheila, during an interview with Cartier-Bresson, found his little daughter entering the room unexpectedly. All of a sudden, Cartier-Bresson shifted into a baby voice, saying “Oh, Mélanie, oh!” This moment was met with my mom’s affectionate coos towards the baby. This small interaction between Sheila and the young girl, who was born only a few years before my own daughter, is just one of many such moments that I later assembled in my mind to form a vivid portrait of my mother’s character.

During the interviews, Seed experienced an unusual sensation: “Her voice sounded familiar to me.” It had been over three decades since she last heard it, as a toddler, but the sound was stored in her pre-verbal memories. When Rachel and Brian spoke with TIME at the beginning of this project, Seed described the excavation process as follows: “It’s like there’s a form of communication happening that isn’t conscious – an innate bond.

The method Seed employed was a complex, multi-faceted approach, involving the examination of negatives with a magnifying glass, perusing journals, and listening to tapes. Gradually, she combined these elements into a unified perspective of a life. The sole artifact that united her mother’s voice and image was a recorded interview given by Sheila in 1973 at City College of New York. Upon viewing this interview, Seed was taken aback because, based on what she had been told, she expected her mother to be rather conventional, studious, and unathletic. However, the footage showed something quite different. “She was incredibly comfortable in her own skin, self-assured, and confident,” Seed said. “I found that genuinely surprising.

Developing a relationship

There’s a big difference between knowing someone’s hobbies and oddities, and truly engaging with them on an ongoing basis. A genuine relationship involves mutual interaction, which can seem challenging when one of the parties is no longer alive. However, for Seed, understanding this dynamic might be facilitated by the very resources she employed to create her film.

At some stage, approximately halfway through, I began talking to her. When I faced tough situations, I would retreat to a tranquil spot and pose a question to her. Afterward, I’d wait for an answer, and she would provide one. She claims that the guidance she received this way was smarter than any advice she encountered among people alive today. The movie encapsulated the core of these discussions by extracting the audio of Sheila’s interview questions and responses, which were later integrated as voiceovers scattered throughout the film.

Indeed, as a lifelong cinephile and one who once dabbled in seances with Ouija boards, I ponder if she truly sensed her mother’s responses. To me, their interactions felt almost ethereal, reminiscent of how an AI learns through being fed vast amounts of data. In essence, I became the learning machine, soaking up every scrap that Sheila left behind and integrating it into my own understanding, much like a software absorbs information to function optimally.

In the movie, the central exploration revolved around finding a way to establish a connection with her solely through our interactions, interpretations, and reflections on various materials. The question was, how deep could I delve into this?

When it comes to the climax of the film, it’s something you should witness for yourself. After brainstorming, Seed decided that the ending required a movie that matched its grandeur. In other words, he aimed to create a film deserving of its finale.

After experiencing the process, she developed a profound respect for the potency of those materials and cinema as a whole. Essentially, she pondered, “What draws us to the cinema? The desire to escape.

Making a film

A Photographic Memory could be described as a unique blend of a documentary, memoir, collage, and personal diary, chronicling over a decade of introspective exploration. This film, jointly written and edited by Christopher Stoudt, is a creation of Seed that seamlessly integrates her mother’s diary entries, family home videos, interviews with relatives, colleagues, an ex-fiancé, and Brian, who spent significant parts of his career at LIFE, TIME, and Sports Illustrated.

In addition, there are sequences showing Seed delving into her mother’s records and wrestling with the knowledge she uncovers, making an effort to fit all the pieces together. Notably similar in appearance to her mother, Seed impersonates her mother in reenactments of her interviews with photographers. These reenactments incorporate audio from those actual conversations, creating the illusion for viewers that they are witnessing the original dialogues unfold. She also meets up with some of those photographers and their relatives to gather their memories of Sheila.

The outcome carries a dreamy, emotionally intense feel, with an underlying sense of curiosity and deep concern. Kirsten Johnson, known for her personal documentaries like “Cameraperson” and “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” is one of the executive producers. Among her inspirations are Chris Marker’s 1962 featurette “La Jetée“, which constructs a narrative from still images; Jonathan Caouette’s raw, visceral 2003 documentary film essay “Tarnation“; the late photojournalist Tim Hetherington’s 2010 doc “Diary“; and Sarah Polley’s celebrated “Stories We Tell” (2012), where the filmmaker delicately explores the truth of her family lineage.

In crafting the film “A Photographic Memory”, it was crucial for me, as a movie enthusiast, to determine the right balance when it came to Sheila’s character. Diving into her mother’s journals, I served as a posthumous guardian of her privacy, engaging in thoughtful dialogues with Sheila about which parts of her life she would feel at ease revealing to the public eye.

Yet, you haven’t addressed Rachel’s emotions or thoughts on these matters.” This feedback made her uncomfortable since she believed she was already putting in a lot of effort, but it wasn’t sufficient.

To meet this demand for more insight into Rachel’s character, she decided to consult her ex-husband, who was going through the divorce process with her, with his agreement. Furthermore, she delved deeper into her own feelings about motherhood by exploring the subject extensively in her work.

In the film, I felt like a character, and this realization made me understand that we needed an avatar for the story, only adding what was essential. Since the movie took over a decade to complete, Seed wanted to fully grasp her emotional state at the end of production. Therefore, she chose to experience it herself in order to create an authentic film.

A sense of closure

In a gallery, Seed experienced a profound moment while gazing at a photo by Louis Hine, known for his depictions of child labor in the early 1900s. The image resonated deeply with empathy for its subject. As she contemplated it, she understood, “I wasn’t just viewing the child; I was seeing Lewis Hine’s perspective. In that instant, I grasped his essence as a photographer.” This insight also guided her when examining her mother’s photographs. “Every great artwork encompasses both the viewer and the artist. When I studied her 300,000 images, I was seeking to discover who she was through her lens, what drew her attention as a photographer.

Through creating this movie, she acquired what she sought, and now she can introduce her mother to the world. As she puts it, ‘In Jewish tradition, when someone is remembered, they continue to exist.’ Through the film, her mother will become known and will endure in people’s memories.

Currently, Seed is engaged in producing or consulting on six distinct movie projects, one of which is a documentary featuring photographer Larry Fink and his daughter. However, none of these upcoming projects are as emotionally charged as the recently completed one, and she has no immediate plans to embark on another project with such intensity. In addition, she refers to herself as an involved parent, or “helicopter mom,” in relation to A Photographic Memory, playing a hands-on role in its distribution strategy and helping the film gain widespread attention among viewers.

According to Seed in the movie, it’s more challenging now that she understands all she missed out on without her mother present during her upbringing. Yet, she makes an effort not to wallow in sadness. She describes this feeling as “being just like yearning to be part of a photograph,” which might be metaphysically impossible, but cinema often feels incredibly real.

A Photographic Memory is playing at New Plaza Cinema June 26-29 and the IFC Center June 30.

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2025-06-26 20:06

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