Eddie Ryan

'Individual memories are influenced by the presence of others, by the social and cultural worlds we inhabit, and are imaginative reconstructions of the past. Although an individual may recollect an event, such remembering is influenced by the wider social environment to which the individual belongs. Thus various ‘sites of memory’ may hold communal identities together or divide them depending upon the perceived authenticity of the site. Heritage tourism research has focused on the active contestation of performances of collective memories through specific material affordances such as photographs and souvenirs. More recent work has also examined the kinds of pictures and objects that people carry with them and use to reassemble memories, practices, and even landscapes, thus remaking the materiality of places. However, memories are also reconstructed through intangible practices of storytelling, and the telling of a story can confer added authenticity to a material place.'

Kevin Hannam & Edward Ryan (2019): Time, authenticity and photographic storytelling in The Museum of Innocence, Journal of Heritage Tourism