Living Memory Artist Statement
These images were made during my time volunteering with Senior Solutions in Seneca, SC and address my questions about aging prompted by my maternal grandmother. Shortly after she was widowed, my grandmother went back to work for the first time in twenty years as a nurse caring for the elderly. Over time, she began to push friends out of her life and became extremely lonely despite a close family. Though she lived to be eighty-two, the last few years of her life were very unhappy, and even as a teenager, I was acutely aware of this change. Wanting to help others in a similar situation since I was unable to help my grandmother, I began volunteering at the adult daycare and delivering meals to the homebound.
Through this volunteer work and through photography, I hoped to answer some of the questions I had about aging and to pose these questions to my viewers. As part of this, I created purposeful juxtapositions within the images that emphasize the darker aspects of aging, both to raise these questions and to promote empathy.
Why do some people end up the way my grandmother did, and what can be done to prevent this? Does the way our society treats the elderly contribute to this? How can individuals and communities better care for one another?