where you were

"Where You Were" is a series of photographs exploring the life and death of my grandfather, Norman "Dick" Sobel. When I first started seriously exploring photography, my grandfather was one of my earliest subjects. I photographed him over the course of the last six years of his life, from when he used a walker to when he became wheelchair-bound after several small strokes, to the last days of his life in October 2016. It was my last visit to him, he was alive but not conscious, and the only way I could make sense of what was happening was with my camera. I took photos as a way to process grief, and to mark his absence in the home he had lived in for nearly two decades, an absence that got its start when he developed vascular dementia years ago. He died a couple of days after the photographs were made.

2010

2016

2014

2016

2015

2016

2015

2016

2010

2016