Based on a short story by American author Lorrie Moore, People Like That Are The Only People Here creates a link between type and image to explore the progression of a family’s grief in the face of unforseen trauma and hardship.
People Like That tells the story of a couple confronting the cancer diagnosis of their infant child. Moore’s descriptions throughout are masterful, poignant, and poetic, allowing a subject matter that could easily become overbearing to remain compelling, touching, and even at times, funny.
Imagery of an empty household—abandoned suddenly and seemingly frozen in time—communicates the displacement of a family during time of crisis, and serves as a metaphor for the confusion, isolation, and emptiness that often accompanies grief. This setting of Moore’s story explores the tension between interior and exterior self, and the way that line begins to blur, as one passes though the stages of grief, and the clarity that can arise from pain.
Big thanks to Melissa Kuperminc
