Photographing Death

I wanted to produce a narrative of my mother’s loss and regret. The used flowers signal the death of my mother, the vase was hers and the picture empty picture frame is a device to let the viewer occupy the photograph with their memories.

‘As the fascination that photographs exercise is a reminder of death, it is also an invitation to sentimentality. Photographs turn the past into an object of tender regard, scrambling moral distinctions and disarming historical judgments by the generalized pathos of looking at time past ( Sontag 1971 p55)’

Dead flowers with empty picture frame

Experimenting with still life

Self Portrait

Mother Circa 1940’s

Following on from a lecture with Sarah I decided to continue using artefacts, such as this flower jug and incorporate them with photographs of my parents. I am trying to link the history of my family with out having to resort to text.

Still Life of Vase with a picture taken by my Father

Due to my difficulty in walking at the moment, my only option is to concentrate on desktop photography. I began looking at artefacts belonging to my parents, following on from the theme I started last year. This jug has been in the family since I can remember and assume its dates from the 1950s. My mother would use it regularly for flower arrangements, but sadly in my possession has been relegated to a cupboard. I decided to use this vase as a narrative for my parent's love. My idea initially was to photograph the glass jar and pair it with another photograph creating a diptych. I will try this but decided I would attempt using other images as backgrounds. I found it successful in inserting images within the jar and began working with different photographs relating to the theme. One photo haunted me, taken by my Father in a hotel room he occupied soon after my Mothers death. The picture focuses on an empty chair a metaphor for my Mothers absence? I'm not sure my Father would have consciously thought that but who knows. I intend to explore this concept over the following weeks.