“At 19, I’d never known anyone who had died, with the exception of my grandfather, who’d been old and far away. I’d never been to a funeral. I understood nothing of that kind of loss – of the crumbling of the physical texture of lives lived, the way the meaning of a place could change because those who used to be in it were no longer there. I knew nothing about the hopelessness and the necessity of trying to capture such lives – to rescue them, to keep them from vanishing altogether.” M Hutton.
This project was done by Miranda Hutton, focusing on the rooms of deceased children in their parents homes. It shows how the parents have left the rooms exactly how they were used by their children. The amount of time that the children have passed differs from each image, some are months, but some are many years. The room still holds a lot of memories for the parents, and they probably want to keep it the same to preserve their memories.
The images are shot from a distance, and the angle is almost like someone is peering into the room. She would have had to be respectful to the family and the surroundings in their home. The rooms show they have obviously been used once, but now is more of a memorial space that the parents can come to reflect. In each image there is a bright light that streams in from the windows. It brings life into the room and
illuminates the children's possessions in the room.
I find the images very moving, and very personal to the parents. It shows how they can reflect on their children's memories, but being in their space and their surroundings.