Power of Possessions

After the sudden and unexpected death of my husband, I found it difficult to dispose of his clothing and personal items. Impulsively, I began to make photographs. There is ambiguity in the left over scraps of ordinary lives, in commodities with no monetary worth. His personal possessions embodied remnants of a past in folds and creases, in etched abrasions or small stains, in hair, in tiny flakes of skin, and in the visibility of wear and touch. It was the evidence of touch that became fascinating. I was attempting to describe a haptic relationship to objects possessed, whether through embodiment, use or caress. It was only through the making of the photographs that I really began to appreciate the true significance of the phrase ‘to have and to hold’. To be able to touch, to be able to hold, is at once the most primitive and the most precious of the senses.