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Far away so close: Max Kandhola from Ag32, by Simon Bainbridge |
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When the bad news came and his father fell gravely ill he stopped making the images and began collecting the human detritus of his treatment instead. ‘His body was rejecting everything - the chemotherapy and the fluid that was pumped inside his body. One thing I noticed was the amount of debris there was - things dropping off - hair, blood, tissues, needles, urine samples... I asked the nurses to collect and keep bags of them, knowing I could photograph them later. It was natural to do that, because you could see all these bumps and marks appearing on his torso externally, and yet the cancer was internal.’ He resisted photographing his father directly until, finally, things got worse. Using a macro lens he closely documented parts of his body that were constantly touched by his family: the hair they stroked, the torso they massaged, the ear in which they whispered comfort. ‘I couldn’t photograph his mind, but I think the Eyes pictures were the closest that I could get to him. So much happens when you are in the process of making a photograph and it was only afterwards when I was looking at the contacts that I realised he was trying to adjust his eyes to look into the lens, and that by the fourth picture he does. ‘At the time - and I have been very honest about this - I only thought about getting the pictures. I was thinking about composition and lighting. It came very naturally because I was used to doing it. I didn’t know what the commotion going on around me was until the nurse told me that he had passed away. People do find it difficult that I had this engagement with him at that moment.’ Illustration Of Life (ISBN: 0-935445-28-5) is priced £20. |
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