The fossils, the ashes and other remains of existence is an ongoing work visualizing the
complexity and the many different stages of experiencing loss. It aims to open up a new
ontological dimension of the way we understand death through our connections to physical
objects and the active involvement in the photographic event.
The project emerged from a personal trauma - the loss of my father, and my urgency to accept
the incompleteness a death brings. Through an active engagement in the process, photography
becomes a tool for post-traumatic healing. The outcome is a posthumous exploration together
with an incorporeal protagonist that signifies at once both presence and absence.
Considering photography’s inherent power to preserve things in a visual way, we are conditioned to believe a photograph as it encapsulates the notion of “truth”. Through this work I extrapolate this subjectivity in a fictional space and time. By using photography as a tool for creating evidence I construct paradoxical situations. My father’s house serves as a connection between the physical and the meta-physical world, a liminal space for experimentation. His favourite objects occupy the space and take new meaning. Organic materials on the edge of their decay are physically incorporated in the images. And the body becomes a carrier of imprinted childhood memories. In the end everything is documented and photographed as artefacts to ensure continuation. The result is a meticulously fabricated microcosm of human and non-human remains.