As You Were
“Anything, anything would be better than this agony of mind, this creeping pain that gnaws and fumbles and caresses one and never hurts quite enough.”
- Jean-Paul Sartre
In this work, I study the relationship between the people in my history who have dealt with hardship and myself. I am drawn to their everyday strife because my own experiences have brought me there as well. I am interested in the kinship that develops when we understand one another’s struggles. Sharing this brings hope that we are not alone even in our hardest time. Although our problems may be different, we all struggle. It is the common struggles that I am most intrigued by: the hostile siblings, or the loss of a loved one. These photographs are more about the viewer’s relationship with memory then the specific subject’s relationship with such. Acting as a conduit, the images take on different meanings for different people. The outcome of this continuing project is to make note of these contrasts and allow the viewer to contemplate their own experiences with struggle while hopefully making a connection to the subject. To know and feel another’s suffering is to truly know them.
- Jean-Paul Sartre
In this work, I study the relationship between the people in my history who have dealt with hardship and myself. I am drawn to their everyday strife because my own experiences have brought me there as well. I am interested in the kinship that develops when we understand one another’s struggles. Sharing this brings hope that we are not alone even in our hardest time. Although our problems may be different, we all struggle. It is the common struggles that I am most intrigued by: the hostile siblings, or the loss of a loved one. These photographs are more about the viewer’s relationship with memory then the specific subject’s relationship with such. Acting as a conduit, the images take on different meanings for different people. The outcome of this continuing project is to make note of these contrasts and allow the viewer to contemplate their own experiences with struggle while hopefully making a connection to the subject. To know and feel another’s suffering is to truly know them.
