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I never want to forget.

 

My first son was born in 1970. Twenty-six years later he killed himself in 1996. These images are my photographic take on a 16th and 17th century style of oil painting called vanitas. A vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands. The Latin word means "vanity" and loosely corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life. these paintings were created to give honor and memorium to the fleeting lives of those cherished people who had died or were dying. A true vanitas painting always includes a skull of some sort that represents death.

 

Every item in these black & white darkroom prints represents something my son made, loved, touched or that makes a connection between us. Some items represent those whom he loved or who loved him.