Hi Everyone - what a busy week it has been. I've been in the process of refining designs for next year, and I'm almost there... but it's taking a while for me to get them right where I want them.
Above are three images from Alexandra Rowley's series of portraits of her father. I came across this series via this blog, and since I first saw it, I have been thinking about it.
A little personal side-note, my parents recently sold our family home of about 40 years. It was in New England, and the three of us have spoken often about the fact we'll miss New England more than we'll miss the house.
As my parents busied themselves categorizing, packing, and discarding elements of our life there, from afar, I found myself mentally going through each room and picturing the objects in it in my mind...almost trying to mentally solidify them for later reference. In a way, I felt like I was holding each item I saw in my thoughts, almost meditating on it. It's strange how objects can have a life -- or show a life. We are so tied to this physical world, to things, to our effect on things.
This series of portraits above was created in the year of the photographer's father's death. She began photographing his belongings and did not stop until three years later. I have to say, the fact this was a process - in more ways than one -- is what makes it so special. This genre of photography, the "collection" often feels so arbitrary and stylized -- it is amazing to see it as a medium when it actually MEANS something.
I find this series at once disturbing, and loving...and complex...as relationships often are. There is a comfort in these objects, but also a sadness, a remote-ness, and a finality. As a process, this is an interesting way to come to terms with the end of something, someone. The unique fold of a handkerchief, the contents of a pocket, the hard barrier of a necktie... the way the sole of a shoe looks like a smoothed plot of dirt.
I guess I will stop there - you probably get what I am trying to explain.
View more from this series here.
Have a wonderful weekend, and don't forget...the more you look, the more you find!
xx S
