Reading Helen Macdonald on photographs

I have just finished reading the remarkable book "H is for Hawk" by Helen Macdonald.  

In the book she writes about the death of her father who was a photographer. I was so struck by her grappling with the question: How you learn what you are. It gave me real insight into why this project has been so important to me.

Excerpt from 'H is for Hawk':

'All those thousands upon thousands of photographs my father had taken. Think of them instead. Each one a record, a testament, a bulwark against forgetting, against nothingness, against death. Look this happened. A thing happened, and now it will never unhappen. Here it is, in the photograph...'

I am understanding how this passion of mine to both record and understand the story of our families through the letters they wrote, through their words and also through the photos that were taken, is the bulwark against forgetting and the witnessing that a thing happened and now will never unhappen.

Helen reading from H is for Hawk

Postscript: 

I went to a Jenny & Co book event where she hosted and chatted to Helen Macdonald.

I enjoyed both the brief chat with Helen, she showed me a photo of her goshawk, Mabel on her iPhone. She speaks as well as she writes, is natural and almost bemused and surprised by the huge success of her book.