ISO METAMORPHOSIS 2020
Mum died on 5 March, 2020.
Covid-19 social distancing laws were implemented two weeks later.
I had recently completed a photojournalism project examining the humanistic desire to commemorate death and war – WWI Centenary had been the catalyst.
We were not permitted to hold a funeral or memorial for mum.
I retreated to our farm in Northern NSW.
After I had finished the WWI project in 2019, we had started restoring the 100-year-old house on the farm – it was build at the end of WWI.
As demolition began, mum was diagnosed.
I found I could not photograph mum during her illness. I photographed the farmhouse instead. The fleeting moments of light as it cut through old walls eradicated to make way for new open plan living. Fleeting, because at sunset everyday the new angles of light would vanish.
Drought moved into the paddocks and bushfires threatened as the year progressed.
During this winter 2020, in lock down, I watch for all the clichés of death in the many storms, mists and skimming light I witness.