This project takes the image of the moth as a motif for a deeply personal exploration of loss twenty years after the death of my mother. The traces left behind by these moths form shadows which speak of the spaces left empty by death, physical and emotional; an expression of the stillness of grief decades after loss.
The moth is a creature with a mysterious reputation. It is ever-prevalent yet illusive and has long been associated with night, darkness and the human soul. Using the motif of the moth this project is a search for the trace left behind, capturing these fleeting visitations with photographic prints and images, exploring the threads of light which bond us, the moth and the photographic image.
Moth Shadows are the trace of the presence, the reminder, the ghost. Like a photograph they are the evidence of the light and the life and the very existence of what-has-been (Barthes 1981). The shadows remind us of our own inescapable interconnectedness with nature and the beautiful and cruel cycles into which we are all tied.
