The last time I saw you

A recent project and a work in progress...

My most recent photography project is ‘The last time I saw you,’ which I described in a recent documentary for my MA as "a love letter from a sister to a brother that explores absence, loss, grief, and memory."

The project is rooted in my brother’s life and the memories I hold of him. I wanted to document words and imagery together in a way that sustains his memory. There is so little of him left in the world, and I believe this project is a way to rectify that and honour his memory.

After he passed away, I was left with a small box of his possessions: some of his drawings, a penknife, a lock of hair, and cassette tapes he’d decorated in his own artistic style.

Alongside these were letters he wrote to me over a four-year period, revealing the highs and lows of his complex life. Reading these now, some thirty years later, they resonate with renewed meaning and understanding. The texture of the paper, the familiar scent—they bring him back to me in a way words alone cannot.

A photographic discovery

An incredible occurrence took place during my research for this project. To my knowledge, there were no photos of him between the ages of 15 and just shortly before he died at twenty-seven.

I managed to contact his childhood best friend. He told me he’d taken some professional photos of my brother during those years and sent me three images I’d never seen before. For the first time in more than twenty years, I reconnected with the brother I remembered through these ‘new’ photos.

Seeing his face again, as he was in the years I thought were lost, was like time travelling —a bridge to the past.

Work in progress

I wanted to share some of this work with you, despite my notorious reluctance to share (all for the right reasons, and I’m working on my ego!).

Here are some pages from the project.

I’ll post more as the project develops.

Do let me know what you think.