Someone messaged me after my first Bits + Bobs post asking if the guy in the photo was my dad — and said they really hoped it was, because I guess they thought he looked cool (because I do).

Very classic 1980s rock aesthetic. I don’t hate it. It also reminds me a bit of The Lost Boys, which I loved.

That message sent me looking for a photo of my dad, and I ended up in his obituary folder. Then I found this.

I actually did a little shout when I realised what he was working on and called out to my son, “look what I’ve found — Grandad!”

He was in the middle of playing Fortnite and barely looked up, so I told him to look again — this time above the computers, where my dad’s painting is proudly hanging.

#bitsandbobs #familyarchive #personalarchive #foundphotographs #memorywork #behindthescenes #intergenerational

BITS + BOBS

Bits + Bobs is an ongoing archive-led project exploring fragments of my parents’ lives and work.

The project has grown out of loss — both of my parents passed away four months apart in 2012 — and a desire to return to that time, to understand it more fully, and to reconnect with my own sense of identity and roots.

One chapter focuses on the music scene in Iceland during the late 1980s, with other chapters emerging over time as the archive expands.

Bringing together photographs, ephemera, interviews, and other people’s memories alongside my own — including personal VHS recordings and recovered broadcast material — Bits + Bobs traces small moments, backstage stories, and cultural fragments. Some are complete, others still in progress — part recollection, part reconstruction.

The project is being developed with the intention of forming a wider public body of work, with potential outcomes including exhibition, moving image, and publication.