A photo of a house photo found in a thrift store
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Submissions will be open for the next year at least - please feel free to share this project with those who may want to participate, too.
GRIEF HOUSES | Exploring Grief Through What’s Left Behind
A visual narrative project by Sarah Sovereign
Details & Participant Call Out:
This project explores people who have passed by the things they’ve left behind: objects, clothing, houses, trinkets, photographs. I am especially interested in visually exploring houses before objects have been packed and sorted - or perhaps while they’re being packed and sorted. I’m looking for people willing to let me come and create within these spaces while sharing stories about the person who has passed. All participants will need to sign a release and images (and stories) will be posted online and possibly within a gallery setting, etc.
Houses definition: Any dwelling, apartment, room (including spaces like hospice).
In GRIEF HOUSES, I'm looking specifically for spaces, maybe minimally touched or altered, where people who have passed lived. Spaces that they decorated, that they lived in, objects and mementos they left behind that create a portrait of who they were: things/objects they loved, activities they loved to do, places they went, things that remind you - the memory keeper - of them and why. In this way, I hope to create portraits - not just of the people they loved, but of the people they were.
If you’d like to participate, please reach out through the contact form below, I would so love to hear about your person. This project is unfolding at it’s own pace - as I navigate my own grief journey. Please let me know if your submission is time sensitive so I can reach back out as soon as possible. If the contact form is still up, this project is still active.
One of my favourite photos: my grandparent’s sunlit living room after my Nan died, Aunt Dorothy sitting in Nan’s chair and my grandpa gently letting us all know we could leave anytime.
It’s a photo that’s full of grief, shifting rituals, a portrait of someone made up of their absence and what they’ve left behind.
I’ve been (slowly, so slowly) developing a project around houses & grief, and I’ve thought of this photo a lot as I do.
For more info, you can also check out the blog post I made on this project. Visit the instagram posts here and here.