Absence 07

This is part of a series that I shot on the evening of Monday, March 2 2009. I wanted to classify them as portraits because they're not really intended as interior shots, but photographs of the absence of a person that until earlier that day resided in this house, as he had for over forty years prior. To me, chairs and beds in photographs are never actually empty - their occupants are just missing from the shot. Think of these as portraits in absentia.

This was taken on the day in which he was taken to the hospital for what turned out to be the last time: he passed away on Friday morning.

I was reflecting on his departure to the hospital and the fact that the house did not feel as though he was going to return, and I felt moved to shoot the set of pictures of which this shot is a part.

There is another shot a lot like this one in the set that's in b/w. I like both, so I am posting both.