COREY DANIELS    JOHN DUCKWORTH    EMILY GOMEZ    PAUL HAGEDORN    SUSAN HARBAGE PAGE    ANDREA ROJAS

EMILY GOMEZ

Born in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, lives and works in Milledgeville, Georgia, M.F.A University of Georgia

Relics Series
Cyanotypes on Vellum

In 2007, my grandfather passed away.  My family was left with the task of cleaning out his home in Ohio and distributing his possessions as well as my grandmother’s.  At first, it seemed like the most painful task possible—couldn’t we just leave everything where it was and declare it a museum to two of the most wonderful people to have walked the earth?  Couldn’t it be preserved as a place to contain my childhood memories?   Of course it couldn’t. 

When it came to distributing the items, the things I wanted were objects that held specific memories for me; the glass pepper jar in which my grandmother kept rubber bands; the pitcher from which she poured Kool-Aid for me and my brother; my grandfather’s percolator that filled the house with the aroma of Maxwell House coffee at five a.m., the china tea cup from which he drank.  All of these objects and others somehow contain my grandparents’ spirits.  When I see or use the objects, I remember my grandparents and feel as if they are still here with me. 

As a photographer, I have a passion for documentation—to preserve a moment in time for people to see, relate to, and ponder. These photographs represent something we all have in common—the desire to hold on to memories, to make them tangible and evident.  They also serve as memento mori—reminders that we will die so we should make every moment count—we should experience life, and interact with others in a positive way so that we too will be fondly remembered.