Deb Orloff's new solo exhibition ncludes work from several series that fall under the overarching title Elusive Memory a large body of work she started in 2013 and continues to build. Her newest work is inspired by personal experience with genealogy research and utilizes photographs she made in Central and Eastern Europe. According to the artist: “Researching my family’s roots has led to myriad dead ends; I’ve found random facts related to a handful of ancestors, but nothing close to a complete narrative. Details of individuals have been lost as people die, and their memories disappear. This is complicated by the fact that I come from a diasporic culture where official records from Russia and Eastern Europe largely cease to exist, and histories depend on oral traditions.”

 

Orloff explains: “The first iteration of Elusive Memory consists of high-resolution photographs of damaged family photos that emphasize the unique details of their deterioration. These large-scale prints serve as metaphors for the unreliability of memory and the experience of trying to access it.” She continues: “Conversely, the photographs in Elusive Memory: Lost Histories are small still-life images that deny the viewer most of the visual information photographs are expected to reveal. With only selected areas in focus, they allude to lost stories and identities - especially in situations of forced migration (the case for my ancestors who fled Russia during the pogroms of the late 19th century).”

 

Her new series, Elusive Memory: Constructed Histories, is a physical collage project. Of this work she says: “In these intimate assemblages, I juxtapose physically altered family photos with images I made in European locations relevant to my ancestry and Jewish history including the Holocaust. Conflating time, people, and places, these pieces start to suggest stories and relationships that could have transpired but, like my family history, can never be fully known.”

 

Orloff initially embarked on her European odyssey to make “source material” for the collage project she was planning last summer. However, while photographing concentration camps and other sites related to her Jewish heritage, she was particularly struck by “spaces that had traumatic histories but little to no visual evidence of what took place at the sites.” Thinking about this “erasure of history,” she sought and photographed such areas. These images are part of a parallel body of work, Elusive Memory: What Remains, that will be represented in the River House Arts 2nd Floor Gallery exhibition as well.

 

Elusive Memory has been generously supported by the University of Toledo’s office of Research.

 

Deborah Orloff is a photo-based artist and educator. Originally from New York City, she moved to Ohio to accept a faculty position at the University of Toledo where she is Head of Photography & Digital Media, and Associate Chair of the Department of Art. Orloff received her MFA from Syracuse University and her BFA from Clark University. Although her primary medium is photography, she has also worked in video and installation. Her artwork has been included in numerous exhibitions at national and international venues including: the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, and the Royal Scottish Academy Galleries in Edinburgh, Scotland. Orloff's ongoing series, Elusive Memory, was selected for inclusion in the Museum of Contemporary Photography's Midwest Photographers Project and the Rotterdam Photo Festival in the Netherlands. Deborah Orloff has been the recipient of dozens of grants and awards including corporate sponsorship by Hahnemühle Paper. Most recently, she was the recipient of a 2025 Photobook Fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder and named a “Top 200” in Photolucida’s 2025 Critical Mass.