Vandersault

The more I have been away from my family, the more I am curious about them, also the evolution of the family. Yesterday I went to see my grandmother, whom has always tried to embrace family and friends with open arms. Have not since her since half a year, so that was really good to see her again, and always as a guest with her you feel cared for. And she is a world class chef.

She lost her husband, my grandfather over twenty years ago, and it´s amazing how strong she has been in the time after. I know she held him very high, yet I hear of many stories. She told me yesterday about a vision she had where she actually saw my grandfather walking across the hills to her; nothing needed to be said, it was a surreal encounter where the world she knows to be tangible submerged and time and space became interpreted fully diferently. She was wide awake.

I have a vague recollection of my grandfather but I was fortunate to play with him. He was also very passionate about photography and I rediscovered yesterday with new eyes, a wide collection of photos he made from the 60s up until the 80s. There is really a lot of treasures in that material, that both reveal cultural styles and people´s interactions. Not all is interesting of course, I actually think he photographed with the same frequency as a digital beginner.

To find a few street like photographs in there really got me excited, to be able to see the world the way he did. My grandmother has perhaps not seen some of these at all, or if so quite a long time ago. So it was a real nice discovery moment with her. When we saw this portrait of her taken by my grandfather we were stunned. It´s beautiful and classical photography. Filled with dignity and illustrating depth of a person.  I am quite frankly a bit obsessed with finding all these, they are sort of puzzles of their life, and also mine. Ancestry that were lit with the light of the 60s. Wow!

This image striked me! My aunt was already the best fashionable back then.

Seeing here a very released and spontaneous body language between my father and aunt. They had a nanny while living in Rotterdam. Today I think she is a priest. The man with the dark hair was my favourite uncle, very generous kind man.