Nothing gold can stay

We will all experience loss at some time in our lives, whether it be a friend, family member, animal or even an object. One year to the day after my mother died and not knowing how or whether to mark it I decided to photograph all the small items I had taken when clearing her house. These held no value or meaning to anyone other than myself and during the year since her death I had placed them, or put them away and forgotten them, or used them. It was comforting to seek and find them again and see where they had now ended up - from her home to mine. Six months earlier on a trip to Scotland I found myself photographing deep, dark water and misty mountains and I realised that they symbolised my emotions of darkness, isolation and emptiness while at the same time calming and comforting me – smoothing over my wounds. Placing the two collections together became an outlet for my grief and a documentation of a journey to recovery.