Fanmi (meaning family in Haitian Creole) is an ongoing project centered around contextualizing familial history through verbal stories, appropriated family photos, artifacts, and personal writings.
After the untimely passing of my mother and two aunts, the family dynamic within my household shifted drastically; a cousin then became a mother, another a sister. In recent years, I began to wonder about how this shift in our lives relates to our familial history, how we grieved and continue to grieve. How do we reshape and redefine the meaning of family after great loss?
Fanmi (meaning family in Haitian Creole) is an ongoing project centered around contextualizing familial history through verbal stories, appropriated family photos, artifacts, and personal writings. Appropriated images from old family albums are reworked with digital alterations to provide a sort of visual storytelling based on old family stories that add a new perspective and context to the images. Like “Untitled #4 (happy place)”, a photograph that seemed joyous with its kitschy aura is brought down to the reality of “that was a very hard time.” Or “Untitled #1 (kouche soley)” showing two silhouettes filled with a golden sunset, their hands still visible to show that while gone, they're still of great importance, and not forgotten.
This project will serve as a celebration, a memorial, and a reflection on all that remains and is brought back together again after great loss.
Fanmi (meaning family in Haitian Creole) is an ongoing project centered around contextualizing familial history through verbal stories, appropriated family photos, artifacts, and personal writings. Appropriated images from old family albums are reworked with digital alterations to provide a sort of visual storytelling based on old family stories that add a new perspective and context to the images. Like “Untitled #4 (happy place)”, a photograph that seemed joyous with its kitschy aura is brought down to the reality of “that was a very hard time.” Or “Untitled #1 (kouche soley)” showing two silhouettes filled with a golden sunset, their hands still visible to show that while gone, they're still of great importance, and not forgotten.
This project will serve as a celebration, a memorial, and a reflection on all that remains and is brought back together again after great loss.