The last photograph Over the last five or so years I’ve taken a lot of photographs of (and with) my mother. During Mum’s final days, I realised I wanted one more photograph before the end. I wanted it to be simple, serene and full of light. I think she would approve this one.

Bird between the icebergs

Ancient ice histories

City of ice, with its ancient stories, drifting north in the current

I went to Greenland because I wanted to see the icebergs. The experience was extraordinary. ‘Time’s relentless melt’ writ large. Remarkable, and sobering, to think that these vast structures are so powerful and yet so transitory.

Sorting out my mother’s things. She did love window light from the north. This old fella must be 75 now.

I froze a set of Polaroids in a sheet of ice, and photographed it melting in the evening sun

A fragment of new work about recent experience. I’ve created a Substack blog to share snippets. Here’s the link if you’d like to subscribe. open.substack.com/pub/kvcarpen...

Fallen

Fallen

Fallen

I seem to be disproportionately sad about the falling of this old tree, dead for as long as I’ve known it, but still standing. It was a landmark, a waypoint, and felt like a dear old friend.

Blossoms on the compost heap

Our wonderful, funny, kind, clever, vivacious mother has died. As many of you know, dementia robbed her slowly of that vivacity, and us of her, bit by tiny bit; every little loss another twist of the knife in our hearts.

Lately

Mixing my metaphors #memoryandforgetting #familystories #neurons #rosemaryforremembrance #oaktree #dementia

Work in progress

The empty chair (that isn’t empty) From “If You’re Not Singing I’m Not Listening” - work in progress

Further experiments from “If You’re Not Singing I’m Not Listening” We have very different sets of images that we are coming to see as ‘songs’ within a show. Ideas for threading them together are developing. The real life narrative is unfolding as we work and that makes it quite an emotional process.

Scenes from my mother’s garden

Scenes from my mother’s garden

I don’t know who is in the empty chair but in my mother’s mind’s eye someone is there. She talks to them. She’s been talking to Dad and Aunty P too. (I prefer this to her asking where they are.) There are more - in particular, a little boy, who, she says, is much too young to be alone.

Mum used to like a bit of Georgette Heyer back in the day (though if I recall it was something of a guilty pleasure). We’ve just had to make the switch to downstairs living; the staircase is much too dangerous now. I found this lost, loose leaf under her bed when we moved it.

When your experiment goes wrong but you go with it and it ends up expressing something you haven’t fully found words for yet. Distorted rosemary reflection + Unryu paper + encaustic + window backlight & a hand. #dementia #raredementia #family #care #memoryandforgetting #rosemaryforremembrance

New additions to my ongoing series ‘Like Quiet Ghosts.’

As my mother’s memory unravels, her world becomes unfamiliar, distorted and amorphous. Her recognition of people and places is shattering into pieces. But her recollection of favourite songs remains almost flawless. It’s a great source of joy.

Ghost of a memory #rosemaryforremembrance #memoryandforgetting #visualdistortion

“Sunday” from “If You’re Not Singing I’m Not Listening.” 20 minutes of my mother, me & Eleanor, through my father’s old pinhole camera. Musical reference this time is to Sondheim. See how we’re all made of dots. “Arrangements of shadows.”

Morning, everyone

Attending to a resolution (long-standing, not just for the new year!) to update my website, I’ve added an article. katecarpenter.com/writing/shakesofthekaleidoscope

Bare bones of winter

From “If You’re Not Singing I’m Not Listening” - work in progress

Advancing

Still harping on about trees and brains

We can still reach Mum through music. I hope that never goes.

From “If You’re Not Singing I’m Not Listening” - work in progress. With Eleanor Priddis #memory #memoryloss #visualprocessing #visualdistortion #timeandplace #raredementia

From “If You’re Not Singing I’m Not Listening” - work in progress. A 3-generation collaboration with my mother and daughter. #memory #raredementia #music

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Couldn’t resist those colours

Between the seasons, Jackson Hole

Quiet November colours in the vast landscape of Jackson Hole

November cloud in Jackson Hole

Looking forward to the Books on Photography festival in Bristol this weekend. I’ll be there with copies of Kaleidoscope, & with my daughter Eleanor, with whom I’m collaborating on another chapter - a three-generation effort! You’ll find us in the Martin Parr Gallery- come and say hi if you’re there!

Mum. Listening to Moon River

Work in progress

On memory and forgetting #rosemaryforremembrance #memoryloss #raredementia #visualprocessing

‘There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance’ #memoryandforgetting #visualprocessing #raredementia

Athens Photo Festival. I was proud to see Kaleidoscope on display in the museum with all the other shortlisted books for the Pick:24 Book Award. I was struck by varied & compelling stories in all these books, & indeed the powerful photographic storytelling in all the exhibits.

Metamorphoses (XIX) - new on my Photovogue portfolio today. I have dozens of these ‘metamorphoses’ images - can’t seem to stop seeing the scenes everywhere I go. More likely I’m seeking them out. They speak to the myths I loved as a kid and the echoes of those stories down the centuries.

A favourite thorn tree and a recurring theme, new today on my Photovogue portfolio