I found myself deeply overwhelmed by the need to keep even the most mundane of my mom’s belongings when she died this past February, photographer Jennifer Loeber says in her artist statement. Instead of providing comfort and good memories, they became a source of deep sadness and anxiety and I knew the only way I […]
A ‘selfie’ of my Granddad in the mid-1920s in St. Louis, before selfies even existed. Here, my Granddad, Charles Edward “Eddie” Niesen, sits for photo booth portraits. This boy with a bright smile was the baby in his family; he was born the same year that his oldest sister eloped with her husband. I think […]
“I believe in the resonance and staying power of quiet photographs.” –William Albert Allard My Aunt Beth and her friend in rural Mississippi in the 1960s. These Kodachrome colors and memories never faded for me and my family. But this photo is about more than Kodachrome and kids on summer vacation. It evokes endless summer […]
Once, there was a young cowherd who lived in China. Times were hard and food was scarce. When he was 9 years old, he saw a ship setting sail to far-off lands. “Tell my mother I’m going to Nanyang (Singapore)!,” he shouted to the townspeople. He went onwards to Malaya (Malaysia), during its golden age […]
“But there is a deeper need yet…to enter that still room within us all where the past lives on as a part of the present, where the dead are alive again, where we are most alive ourselves to turnings and to where our journeys have brought us. The name of the room is Remember; the […]
Summer evening in the 1940’s in Sweden. My grandfather Nils and my grandmother Karin are in the front seat. Nils loved cars and often invited friends for a ride. Back then not many people owned a car. Here they are with friends, all excited as if they were going to fly an airplane. I love […]
Meet my great-grandparents, Vukosav and Agnes. This is their life story…which eventually led to me. After immigrating from Montenegro, Vukosav met and befriended two Polish immigrants in Ohio: Agnes and her husband. Agnes had two children, an older daughter Mary, and a son, Joseph, pictured immediately next to his mother. Agnes eloped with my great-grandfather, […]
She is my strength, my mother. After losing her father when she was just 12 years old, she saw her life take a 180 degree turn, right in front of her eyes. From a big city (Delhi), she was taken to a very small town in India after my grandfather passed away. From a convent […]
My Mom Gloria holding one of her cousins in their East Austin, Texas neighborhood, sometime around 1960. My mother was one of the older siblings and therefore a primary caretaker in her family, even as a young girl. I learned recently that she used to hand-sew matching outfits for her little sisters and brothers. When […]
Time doesn’t slow down, but we can slow down enough to remember our roots. We just returned from Kansas, where we celebrated the life that my Gramma lived. While there, we learned that she died on the same day as her beloved “Grampt” — my Great Great Grandfather whom she adored. Here is a photo […]
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