Here is my second attempt at a cover for the exhibition AGSA catalog. I prefer this layout because of the coffin-camera picture. It fits the shows theme of how an artist uses his/her art to deal with loss clearer than the darkroom print in a tray pic from the last layout. A bit more of a graphic image, and more to the point of the process dad and I (eye) shared.
One of the hardest things I have ever had to ask was when I asked my father if I could take a photo of him in his coffin. He quickly told me yes (for a memory). This new back picture depicts that painful and difficult process, dad in a coffin with the 5x7 view camera pointing down at him.
Note* Through the years dad took or asked me to take many photos of relatives in coffins. I remember him photographing my grandfather, and me photographing my uncle and aunts and grandma. A grim type of photo to make but also it is the last memory, the last opportunity you have to record and remember the people you love. I think it is important to make these pictures, no matter how painful they are. I wish I could still photograph my father as I did so often before. Now that is impossible, I am happy for every image I have of him.
One of the hardest things I have ever had to ask was when I asked my father if I could take a photo of him in his coffin. He quickly told me yes (for a memory). This new back picture depicts that painful and difficult process, dad in a coffin with the 5x7 view camera pointing down at him.
Note* Through the years dad took or asked me to take many photos of relatives in coffins. I remember him photographing my grandfather, and me photographing my uncle and aunts and grandma. A grim type of photo to make but also it is the last memory, the last opportunity you have to record and remember the people you love. I think it is important to make these pictures, no matter how painful they are. I wish I could still photograph my father as I did so often before. Now that is impossible, I am happy for every image I have of him.
