Oma

In December 2005, my grandmother passed away at the age of 89. This is a collection of photographs documenting her space, her environment and her belongings as they were on the day of her funeral, four days after her passing. I wanted to capture the apartment exactly as she left it, creating a sense of how she lived and the things she surrounded herself with in the final days and years of her life.

The images are also intentionally overexposed, to create a sense of ephermality, of fading out of existence, as a visual metaphor of her and my feelings at that time.

These scenes existed for over ten years, remaining almost completely unchanged with the exception of updated and added photographs of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This would be the last time this scene would exist for me as, two days later, her living space was deconstructed and divided amongst her children.

These pictures give me an ability to personally reflect on her, how she lived and my own perceptions of who she was. It’s also a commemoration of her and a reminder of a familiar environment that I will never experience again.

This project was photographed in December 2005. These prints are not available for purchase.