Molly Steels: I Am/Was/Always

The philosopher Diana Prokofyeva considers a photograph to be a phenomenon that exists as a way to avoid death by copying a moment and suspending it within time - a way to be between two worlds:, the living and the dead. She suggests that a photograph gives confidence of existence, a way to state, “Here I am and was, and always shall have been.”.

View this evolving series that looks to photography as a method of conceptualizing grief and mortality. Using family archives from the past century and conceptual imagery, I locate myself within a chain of human experience. I look to the women who came before me, observing the proof of their existence with reverence and the knowledge that I will one day add to this catalogue. Through this series I aim to overshadow existential fear with curiosity.

Ephemeral aspects of nature are woven into this work as both an unrelenting force and a source of comfort.