Over the years, I photographed you and the family. I think I was aware that you had to go at some point, but I tried to preserve the moments we had. And over this time, our relationship changed. The tone of your voice became softer. Taking pictures of you was also acknowledging your disease and your pain. And it was hurtful because I knew that some moments might never reoccur. “You Felt the Roots Grow” is a personal record of a time between hope and grief. The project is about the recent loss of my dad and the family’s previous life with his cancer disease. Over the turn of seven years, my family was waiting for good news that never really arrived. The story is about waiting, silence, hope, strength, growing intimacy, and understanding, but also the growth of cancer, the invisibility, the pain, and the disappointment. Growing silently and hidden underneath the surface of the skin, the project also attempts to turn the invisible cancer of my dad into something visible, whilst acknowledging its destructive nature. Things were uncontrollable and felt very much out of hand during this time. With the means of photography and text, I tried to regain some control over the narrative and the memories that we are left with. Ultimately, it is my personal experience as a daughter, in which I face the bittersweetness of transience, the poetry within loss, and the incompleteness of memory.
is a Swiss / German photographer based in London (UK) and Thun (CH). In 2022, she graduates in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at LCC, UAL. Her photographic practice centers around intimate narratives and notions of home, belonging, loss and memory.
sabine-hess.com
@sabine_hess
Des photographies peuvent-elles être silencieuses et transmettre une texture particulière de silence? Comment des images peuventelles à la fois parler d’une histoire très individuelle du deuil, et de l’expérience profondément humaine de la perte et de la tristesse? Traitant d’un moment particulier et intime de la vie de Sabine Hess – le deuil à venir, puis le deuil qui est venu – «You Felt the Roots Grow» dépeint le chagrin comme la résilience d’une manière à laquelle chacun peut s’identifier, où chaque image est subtilement imprégnée d’une infinité d’émotions contradictoires.
Over the years, I photographed you and the family. I think I was aware that you had to go at some point, but I tried to preserve the moments we had. And over this time, our relationship changed. The tone of your voice became softer. Taking pictures of you was also acknowledging your disease and your pain. And it was hurtful because I knew that some moments might never reoccur. “You Felt the Roots Grow” is a personal record of a time between hope and grief. The project is about the recent loss of my dad and the family’s previous life with his cancer disease. Over the turn of seven years, my family was waiting for good news that never really arrived. The story is about waiting, silence, hope, strength, growing intimacy, and understanding, but also the growth of cancer, the invisibility, the pain, and the disappointment. Growing silently and hidden underneath the surface of the skin, the project also attempts to turn the invisible cancer of my dad into something visible, whilst acknowledging its destructive nature. Things were uncontrollable and felt very much out of hand during this time. With the means of photography and text, I tried to regain some control over the narrative and the memories that we are left with. Ultimately, it is my personal experience as a daughter, in which I face the bittersweetness of transience, the poetry within loss, and the incompleteness of memory.
is a Swiss / German photographer based in London (UK) and Thun (CH). In 2022, she graduates in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at LCC, UAL. Her photographic practice centers around intimate narratives and notions of home, belonging, loss and memory.
sabine-hess.com
@sabine_hess
Des photographies peuvent-elles être silencieuses et transmettre une texture particulière de silence? Comment des images peuventelles à la fois parler d’une histoire très individuelle du deuil, et de l’expérience profondément humaine de la perte et de la tristesse? Traitant d’un moment particulier et intime de la vie de Sabine Hess – le deuil à venir, puis le deuil qui est venu – «You Felt the Roots Grow» dépeint le chagrin comme la résilience d’une manière à laquelle chacun peut s’identifier, où chaque image est subtilement imprégnée d’une infinité d’émotions contradictoires.