On November 14, 2013, right as the sun was rising, my grandfather took his last breath and left this world behind. Although he and I were close, I had not been as present in the last year of his life as I would have liked. This is something that will always hang over my head. After his passing I was gifted his belongings by my grandmother. What I really longed for was just more time with him. I have been afraid of the same thing happening when my grandmother passes away. I have been clinging to her trying to not only build memories but find ways to hold on the her. I only think this project will be done after she passes and I no longer have her physical being to photograph. For now I hope to invite others into some of my favorite memories I have of her.
Growing up I was always taught the lesson not to hit a woman that it wasn’t what a man does. But I had foggy memories of my own father physically abusing my mother. I can see his fist rising to break her nose. I would never admit this to my mother but this is my earliest memory. That is what drove me to create Life and Times, these nightmares that plague my mind of my father drunk rampaging through our home. I choose to format it as a comic book because as I kid that is how I got away, those were my escapes and I thought it was time to break that mold. I wanted to pay homage to the books that I fell in love with; it was my way of creating a title similar to Adventure Comics a World’s Finest Comics. Secondly the use of Black & White to signify that the current images take place in the past, as has been a trend for years within several books. Where my attempt is different is that all of my images are photographs that have been edited, not drawings as is conventional in books. I also choose to present my images not in book format but as large card. For me this is where the images can really resemble memories, they will sometimes sit un-easily in your hands or shift more then you would like or maybe you will drop them all and the story will be lost.
