On Grieving is inspired by the book: On Photography by Susan Sontag. In this text Sontag illustrates the idea that photography has the ability ot take us THERE. The moment in time the image was created, thus linking photography and memory together inextricably. Our grief is also linked to our memories and therefore grief and photography share a bond together. I implement different instant film types to the idea of polaroid soup. Where I left the polaroids to brew in a vat of water, and some herbal tea to cause the images to degrade any further. Living in Fresno allowed the temperature of the liquid to be over 100 degrees and the images became slightly unrecognizable. I left them to brew for two weeks (10-14 days to be specific). This is like the grieving process because it allows us to slowly move on from the pain an image, date, or thought can cause out of nowhere when we have experienced loss of some kind.
Dedicated to my beloved familiar Mr. Sol whose memory lives on through these images.
Gailan Sabin Gray 