A deeply private mission concerning the brittleness of household ties within the face of contemporary life and dying by Los Angeles-based photographer and filmmaker Brandon Tauszik (beforehand featured here). Brandon’s grandmother, Shirley Tauszik, had been estranged from the household and residing alone for 3 a long time when she handed away in 2020. Within the aftermath, Brandon and his father Lowell have been tasked with sorting by means of the contents of fifteen wood storage vaults in a storage facility in rural Massachusetts.
Amidst piles of battered furnishings, unread books, stockpiled rest room paper, and expired drugs, Brandon paperwork the modern rituals of dying as he watches his father bodily grapple together with his grandmother’s belongings. Whereas private possessions are normally handed down by means of the household with a way of reverence, the mission confronts us with a actuality the place no such emotions are discovered. “If we have been in search of significance in these sealed packing containers,” Brandon states, “we discovered solely junk.” And but, regardless of the shortage of anticipated sentimentality, Brandon and Lowell do discover is a way of connection and catharsis — forging a deeper bond as father and son, and opening up a dialogue round legacies of psychological sickness, abandonment, and the remedial energy of affection.
“Fifteen Vaults” was printed by Eggy Press, you may order it here. See extra from the e-book beneath!