2900 Miles and Other Jumping Cholla

  • Dates
    2016 - 2020
  • Author
  • Locations United States, Tucson, New York, Arizona, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff

What does a heartbeat look like? I have seen scribbled horizons; undular and nervous lines marked by abrupt peaks and sharp valleys. And of course I have heard the flat-line of death. Those lines are a perfect metric for a doctor to envision my physicist father’s failing health. An image of a heart functioning at a third capacity of its younger self. Yet, I gather my own proof in photographs—feelings extracted from moments in my life, rife with cryptic truths.

This project is a collection of hidden messages drawn from living 2,900 miles away from my father’s decline. These photographs are evidence plucked from a distant periphery; moments found in daily-life anecdotes from the desert Southwest or the rare visit back East. Reminders, perhaps an admission to myself, that my father is dying. And they are a premonition of what that loss looks like. Textures and narratives leap at me from a physician visit, desert vistas, or the living room. These photos embody the knowledge that no matter how far I run I am still connected to his withdrawal from this world. Perhaps this is a knowledge that will endure beyond his passing. But for now, daily omens appear in the warmth of the home, on the edges of sublime wilderness, and wherever I go to forget.

The Incomplete Afterword:

At the end of a Jewish funeral, graveside attendees will each take the shovel to participate in the finality of letting go and burying the dead. However, as a gesture of reluctance, traditionally the first scoop of dirt is made with the shovel upside down. (It’s a frustrating gesture to use a perfect tool in its most inefficient way.)

My naïve assumption was that my father’s death would define the natural end to “2900 Miles and Other Jumping Cholla.” He died in November of 2018. As I continued the project, I balanced his sustained presence with an inability to let go.

The project came to an end in the Spring of 2020.

© Serge Levy - Image from the 2900 Miles and Other Jumping Cholla photography project
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Tucson, AZ. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22") “2900 Miles and Other Jumping Cholla” brings together four years of making photographs in response to my father’s decline due to heart failure, his death, and the magnitude of that loss. Ever since leaving New York City eight years ago, the Southwestern landscape has become a palette of symbols and phenomena from which I have drawn realizations of my emotional life. My earlier city street photography used the gestures, dramas, and interactions of urbanites as representatives of buried emotional narratives. Since moving to the Southwest, I have been exploring the landscape for its possibilities to reflect back representations of loss, pain, and even the relief and hope that form the arc of mourning.

© Serge Levy - Tucson, AZ. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Tucson, AZ. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - The Dawn Greene Hospice, NY, NY. 2018. (Size: 17" x 22")
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The Dawn Greene Hospice, NY, NY. 2018. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Clear Creek, Grand Canyon, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Clear Creek, Grand Canyon, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Sycamore Canyon, Mt. Lemmon, AZ. 2016. (Size: 22" x 17")
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Sycamore Canyon, Mt. Lemmon, AZ. 2016. (Size: 22" x 17")

© Serge Levy - Central Park, NY, NY. 2018. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Central Park, NY, NY. 2018. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Marshall Lake, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Marshall Lake, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Deer Creek/Hell Hole Canyon, AZ. 2018. (Size: 22" x 17")
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Deer Creek/Hell Hole Canyon, AZ. 2018. (Size: 22" x 17")

© Serge Levy - The Arizona Strip, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")
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The Arizona Strip, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")
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South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Tucson, AZ. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Tucson, AZ. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - New York, NY. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22")
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New York, NY. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - East Tonto Trail, Grand Canyon, AZ. 2018. (Size: 17" x 22")
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East Tonto Trail, Grand Canyon, AZ. 2018. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Oracle Ridge Trail, Mt. Lemmon, AZ. 2016. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Oracle Ridge Trail, Mt. Lemmon, AZ. 2016. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Lava Tube, Hart Prairie, AZ. 2018. (Size: 22" x 17")
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Lava Tube, Hart Prairie, AZ. 2018. (Size: 22" x 17")

© Serge Levy - Tucson, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Tucson, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Tucson, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Tucson, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Weill Cornell Medical Center, NY, NY. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Weill Cornell Medical Center, NY, NY. 2017. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - Kanab Creek Wilderness, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")
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Kanab Creek Wilderness, AZ. 2019. (Size: 17" x 22")

© Serge Levy - I-10 East of Tucson, AZ. 2016. (Size: 17" x 22")
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I-10 East of Tucson, AZ. 2016. (Size: 17" x 22")

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