ANONYMOUS SORROW

This portfolio “Anonymous Sorrow” began as a response to human pain, combining photography and text on paper, alongside two large works on silk. In October 2023, a moment on a computer screen changed everything.

Through a Gazan journalist’s lens, I watched two boys emerge from smoke, carrying another between them like a makeshift stretcher. His foot hung barely attached, swinging in the air. The image struck deep – I had recently experienced my own similar foot injury, but my story ended differently. Thanks to a friend nearby and quick access to medical care in one of the world’s wealthiest cities, I healed completely. The contrast was stark: same injury, vastly different outcomes, separated only by where we happened to live. I live in a peaceful neighborhood in the Pacific Northwest and this boy was living in the bullseye of war.

This realization drove me to create. I needed to hold onto this young stranger’s story, to give permanent form to this difficult truth.

I started with words, letting my thoughts flow as I tried to process what I had witnessed. These writings evolved into a blend of old and new – using traditional wooden letterpress to imprint key phrases onto archival pigment prints. The photographs span my archive from 2005 to 2023, captured on both film and digital cameras, each image chosen to speak to this moment of connection across continents.