Honorable Mention - L.A. Photo Curator: Global Photography Awards - Childhood: Past, Present, & Future. 2021
In 1997, when I was 2 years old, my father died of Hodgkin's disease. Because of how young I was, I have no memories of him. Everything I know about him has been passed on to me; stories from my mother and sister, paintings of his on our walls, old photos and videos, and so on. Most things I have heard about grief all involve having known the person before they died. I have struggled to find a way to process the grief of someone I never truly knew.
This project began as an attempt to explore that grief. It was initially started when I moved out of my childhood home and my mother began to sell it in 2020. However, my grandmother's declining health and eventual death in April of 2022 added a new dimension to the project I did not expect. My grandmother moved in with me, my mother, and siblings after my father died to help raise us. Because of this, their deaths and lives are linked heavily in my mind. "Pumpkin", my father's nickname for me, has now expanded into a larger examination of my family history, grief, memory, and cycles.
The font at the top of this page was designed by my father when he was in college.
Photographs in this series were shot with both digital and analog processes.