These pictures were taken in response to a friend's grief.

I wanted to provide comfort. As I took these pictures I was sad for them and my own experience of loss moved through my mind. I thought of how all loss is painful and brimming with sadness; how grief can be so immense and how a relief can be found sometimes in nature.

This exercise soothed and calmed me.



As I compiled the pictures I wanted them to soothe.

I chose very specific flowers, not perfect blossoms but those that had bitten torn petals, those that were ragged around the edges. It was around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The water was warm and the previous night a wind had blown blossoms from the branches of the surrounding bougainvillea and hibiscus. There were soft sounds, birds and distance voices.



I altered the pictures so that the resonate with the surreality of my experience of grief, where everything is denser and stranger than before. That reality is at once cloudy and piercing.



It is by no means a reflection of anything else other than my own understanding of loss, it is a personal memoir, an exercise.