Saturday, May 23, 2009

Fear Of Losing The Existence: Photography of John Clang

5/23/09
In his series 'fear of losing the existence', photographer John Chang examines the fear that many of us feel when contemplating or experiencing the death of loved one.  We hold on tightly in our fear of losing these precious memories.   We try to picture our loved ones and struggle to recall all of the details of our time together.  In December,  I posted a related piece, 'Dad's Hands', featuring an excerpt from the blog 'Born a Girl' in which the writer finds details of her lost father slipping from her memory.  She finds, however, that ultimately the important feelings and memories are never lost.  In  'A Grief Observed', author, C.S. Lewis encounters the same situation after losing his wife.  After a devastating loss, the thought that even our memories may fade away, makes that loss seem even more difficult to bear.  Lewis found, though, that when he stopped trying so hard to cling to his memories, and to picture clearly his beloved wife, that the images and memories came back to him.      




"The subject of this series is my parents-in-law.  They are currently in their 60’s, getting older and weaker each day.  We are separated by thousands of miles and I only get to see them once a year.  Each time I see them, they look different.  Their faces change with more wrinkles, their hair has grown thinner and they have become more fragile.  A sign of aging.  Sometimes when I miss them really badly, I realize I have difficulty in picturing their faces accurately in my mind. I’m very afraid that one day I will not be able to remember their faces anymore and we will become total strangers." -John Clang

1 comment:

ash said...

A rather haunting bit of art work. It exists in a bit of a dream state. Much like how you know people in your dreams but often never see their faces.

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