Patricia.

Erika.

Erika is 85 years old. Erika is from Nicaragua. Erika lives her daily routine with frustration and copious amounts of pain. Although she could breeze through her daily activities with the excuse most 85 year olds have (slow and steady), she insists on continuing her busy responsible lifestyle. Of that which she starts at 6:30 every morning. Which is where I come in.

Phillip Jones Grifith 

I was drawn to his candid black and white wide angled views. I kind of approached this in a round about way, I looked through every magnum photographer without picking one specific. I chose like 5 of my favorites, and then decided to find my story before I honed in on a specific style. I wanted to document the life of thirteen year olds on any given day. I have a thirteen year old brother, and after living away from home for almost five years now I have no idea what a day in his world looks like. I came home and expected him to be playing video games on this rainy day, but I was very wrong.

this is where I found them. Jumping on a sopping wet trampoline in the rain. With a ball. 

They insisted they show me their fort. This was not your average fort, this fort had power (via massive extension chords from the house) powering the television, and disco lights on the inside. The best part about this is I built my first legit fort in this very spot a little over ten years ago.

So naturally, we ended up inside, vegging playing video games. 

What amazed me is for the thirty minutes that I was in there, they did not look at each other once. They are so interactive in every other setting, then you get them in front of a tv screen and it all ends. 

A specific type of people. 

Loss is pretty universal. Every human is different, and each one handles loss differently. When asked to find a specific type of people for my documentary class, I decided I would chose something closer to home. We lost our grandfather three months ago, and it was quite sudden. He was still in his 60's. He left behind seven children and a wife. The first photograph is of my aunt Lori, my grandfathers youngest child; she is 29. I decided to hone in on people that have not only lost a parent, but lost a parent at a young age. all of my subjects lost their parents before the age of 40. 

Having to approach these humans was hard for me.. its such a sensitive tender topic, whether it has been four years or four months, they all seemed to share the same sacred aura. One fascinating thing that I did discover, is how few people had a picture of that parent on hand. 4 out of my six subjects had to dig to find a portrait of that parent, and most didnt have one of the parent alone. 

Moral of the story is, we all have more in common than you know.. and take more pictures of your loved ones. 

Liz lost her mother in high school to a stroke. Every year, on the day her mom died, she writes her mom a letter and sends it off with balloons. I was able to take this picture on that day, exactly seven years since she passed. 

This brother and sister lost their father quite recently. The best part about photographing them, was that I could not get sydney to give me a straight face. She was so giggly and smiley, It comforting. Also, we could NOT find a picture of this man without his wife. :) a problem I am so willing to have.  

This is Jessi. Jessi lost her mom a little over a year ago to a drug overdose. Her brother who was only three years older found their mother on the bathroom floor. 

These two are sisters. One being my mom. Their mother, my grandmother, had parkinson's disease for ten years before she passed. Each one of her 8 children cared for her for those 10 years. They tell me I got my artistic eye from grandma Sharon, she was a painter.  

Leslie Topham. This is the Topham home. I knocked on their door, trying to find a story. What I found was not just one, but many stories about the incredible Topham family. I narrowed it down to just one, and thats the story I will share here.

Leslie, wife and mother of three, is "married" to her animals. She was adopted, and through the process of finding her birth parents, found comfort in animals and their similar situations with being disconnected with their birth parents. She wrote a whole book about how to understand adoption; how a parent can approach the subject of their child being adopted by referring to animals. Animals are commonly put in new homes after birth, generally because the owners of the animal believes the animal needs a good home. To leslie, animals are her people. She and her husband spend up to 9,000 dollars a month on hay for all of their animals. They have 15 horses, 2 mules, 1 donkey, 3 chickens, lots of dogs and cats, and many goats. With little hired help, Leslie's life is taking care of these animals. Placing in many races and horse shows, she is personally on a whole different level of companionship with her horses. Leslie is the definition of selfless. She would give her life for her animals, especially her horses. 

This is where 46 year old Jennifer Bollard sat with her parents in their room and watched the twin towers fall on September eleventh. Her home is now gone, and both of her parents have passed away.