Empty Spaces: A Photographic Memoir on Postmemorial and Transgenerational Effects of Grief and Loss

Abstract

This project was born out of a familial tragedy that occurred on November 25, 1979, nearly two decades before I was born. On that day my grandfather, Garry Leo MacVey, passed away during a violent car accident. The goals of this project are two-fold: to pursue the passion of photography that I share with my grandfather, and to use the medium as a vessel in which to build a relationship with him, something that I can never truly have within the bounds of reality. Through the exploration of my grandfather’s photographs and the process of piecing together a visual story that combines the past with the present, and leaves room for the future, I have gained an understanding of my grandfather that I may never have been able to achieve in life, had he survived.