Work > The Ones Who Went Before and Come Again

This work was developed in response to a period when grief and fear had to give way to release, reclamation and growth. The dangers of a twisted patriarchal society can become even more acute to a parent who is watching their child go off to explore the world. The fears held in that release are many and can cloud, for the parent, the joy of the child’s exciting transition.
The Ones Who Went Before and Come Again brings this shift into focus by documenting personal items that were left behind. Items that were once part of a developing and changing identity shed for new autonomy. By using cyanotype on oversized paper to document these items, the body is both there – in the structure of the clothing – but also absent. This method of photography is incapable of capturing hues of the items themselves, but can convey the form, texture and shadow of what’s exposed on its surface with its own inherent cyan hues – an apt rendering for a memory or for a gesture of loss.
Paired with techniques of an old traditional craft, pajaki, made by women, another layer of loss is introduced through reclamation. Representation of an imbedded identity emerges again by learning this craft, as a reminder for the celebration of the seasonal divisions in a year, but also of the seasonal divisions in a life, and the cyclical nature of both. One season ends to give way for another and only until it returns again, when it is time.