The Principal
Camera in hand, I’ve wandered through life,
using images to tell stories.
I’ve worked as an architectural photographer,
a wedding photographer, a photographer
taking pictures of the babies and children from
those weddings - making books to tell the
stories of their early years.
Now, once again, my focus has shifted.
NOW I’m interested in legacy. In making
meaning of a long life. In surrounding elders with images that reflect back to them the lives they’ve lived – the familiar landscapes, the major cultural events of their years. In using images to make a space feel familiar, comforting, celebratory, a touchstone.
Images powerful enough to draw in the adult children as much as the elderly parent. Images that can spark a conversation between residents as easily as it can prompt a grandmother to tell a story to her visiting grandchild.
I’ve had a lifetime of experience telling visual stories across many disciplines. In this new work, instead of using my own photography, I’m researching collections in museums and archives to identify images that are meaningful to the people who find themselves in a Senior Living Facility which, no matter how beautifully designed, no matter how efficiently it addresses their current needs – Is no longer their personal and independent space. They’ve lost ‘home’ for the rest of their lives. I use curated collections to create something rich and personal for them. To let them, once again, connect to the world pictured in those images.
I tell their story.