My Work:

My work this academic year has its roots in one of the projects i was doing in my first year, not so much in a physical sense but being much more to do with the fact that the previous project centered around the subject of my paternal Grandmother. Towards the end of last year, in April, my 'Nana' passed away, and this current project really centers mainly around the physicality's of a death. the project initially pivoted around the process of emptying her house and sorting out 91 years worth of belongings and memorabilia.
One of the main ideas that surfaced was from all the things she left behind. all the objects she felt the need to keep, for example she had kept almost every birthday and Christmas card from my family, wedding anniversary cards, letters from when my father was born, looking through these objects I felt like I was learning new things about family members I never knew, fleshing out stories she had told me and reinforcing ideas I had. but at the same time I was coming across people I had never heard about, these strangers seemed to have been an important part of my Nana’s life but since her death had no relevance to anyone anymore, it was the relevance. The issue of their value, do they become worthless photos of strangers now that any link to them has been broken, now that they have no specific memories for me do they just become pieces of paper or are there any residual memory, does the fact that my nana chose to treasure them make them of some worth.
these are some of the initial photographs i took trying to deal with that issue;