Uses for Old Newspapers

The pandemic has led to a staggering loss of over a million people. Yet we as a nation have barely noticed. Grief experts have called this "psychic numbing." I did not know how to photograph the despair and anger I felt until I came across an article about the many uses of old newspapers. I created scenes of these uses, but employed obituary pages only. As time went on, I realized the images evoked my own complicated thoughts and fears of death. At age five, I experienced a near-drowning that has had lasting repercussions. As an interventional radiologist doing procedures on severely ill and injured patients, fear of hastening death was ever-present. Now in my seventies, I remember my father's approaching death thirty years ago and wonder when and how my time will come.