This collection of photographs is of my grandmother’s pictures, among her things, taken in her house after she passed away. My uncle was about to remodel, so I placed her pictures among her belongings before he did. I ripped off the idea from photographer Bertien van Manen‘s Give Me Your Image project. She found the snapshots amid domestic clutter and sometimes removed them from their original contexts to create amusing, touching, and occasionally bizarre arrangements (see the full description of the project at MOMA).

This series of photos were taken out of love and grief. My grandparents gave me such a profound sense of home as if their modest home was a massive ship I could sail from but always return to. I still love playing around with these photographs and finding new ways to bring them to life.

The idea of creating a retrospective of photos and home after someone passes is fascinating, but I don’t have the equipment nor the chutzpah to suggest this after someone has passed away. Like so much of my work, this project is deeply personal, and it’s difficult to translate it into a job.

I hope that these images will encourage others to discover innovative and meaningful ways to capture and preserve the memories that are most important to them, much like how van Manen’s project inspired me.