With the passing of my grandmother, I developed an interested in people approaching the end of life. Dying is a processes I do not claim to be an expert on, but I have found myself drawn to the very individual experience this inevitable ending posses on the legacy of a person's life. I have found that engaging a person facing death with a space to tell their own story is a much appreciated celebratory experience for the individual and their loved ones. This is what I am setting out to do with these legacy projects.

 

"CarryOn Stories" is my working title. The idea evolved as my studies in undergrad at Smith College coincided with the last years of my grandmothers life. I majored in Anthropology and spent my time thinking and writing from ethnographic interviews collected for social science. Graduating in 2013–I had the desire to continue my interview based studies. I wondered what it would be like to collect an interview and give it back to the person. What resulted was a trip to visit my grandmother in Alaska. I spent a few weeks with her to re-meet her as an adult. We talked and looked at old photos and I looked at her story with fresh eyes. After my visit I put together a photo book of her story and sent it to her for approval. After her feedback we printed it up and sent copies out to the family in celebration of her 90th birthday. She died shortly after and the photo book was an invaluable narrative for my family to gather around at her death. ​Since then I have worked with two other individuals and, Bernie and Harry. Their stories can be found above.

 

What: 1) a series of interviews focused on the individuals life, 2) the creative use of these interviews to build a story easy to share. 3) A final product developed and designed specific to each individual.

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