One of my grandmother's portraits from the early part of the twentieth century. Click twice to see larger.
O N W O O D — This is one of the first pieces of art I did in my 'modern' period, when I started to take my art seriously. I have found hundreds of photographic negatives my grandmother shot in the early part of the twentieth century. I've never found any prints of these photos though. These negatives were found in old candy boxes and stuck in between the pages of old books. The moments in time that she captured in her archaic camera's lenses, is nothing short of amazing to me, and the fact they remained unseen for close to eighty years is amazing, and sad to tell you the truth.
In this series, I tried to remain as true to her work as I could. It's my concept of memories that shape this series. Some memories are sharp, some are blurred, some have faded to black and white, some are still vivid in "living" color. It's hard to explain how I felt doing this "collaboration" with my grandmother, or "Nanny" as I called her—she died in 1969 when I was 12. I know for a fact she was never recognized in the least for producing these absolutely stunning portraits of her friends and co-workers. I'm not sure she realized herself how amazing her photography was.
I'm completely sure though, that she sees that now. My grandmother has been my guardian angel since she died, and I couldn't be more pleased to bring her work back to life.
No comments:
Post a Comment