The first monograph by acclaimed fine-art photographer Lara Porzak, ‘The Chemistry of Memory’, is a 240-page hardcover with open-sewn binding, presenting over 140 photographs, many previously unpublished, in a single definitive volume.

Throughout the book, Porzak reflects on photography as a way of holding onto fleeting moments of beauty and wonder. Her photographs become quiet monuments to light, time, and feeling. Working exclusively with analog techniques such as tintypes and gelatin silver printing, Porzak crafts photographs that function as both images and physical artifacts. Spanning three decades of work, the book moves through pastoral scenes and still lifes shaped by Porzak’s sustained engagement with the natural world. The photographs shift between landscapes, animals, flora, celestial forms, and moments of human presence. Together, they form a contemplative meditation on how photographs can preserve experience and carry presence across time.