Dark Light, an intensely personal new project, was begun after losing five friends in a seven-month period last year, one suddenly, the others after long illnesses. I soon realized that their deaths affected every aspect of my life as I found myself photographing light touching everyday objects.

The project struggles with the commonalities of life that grief both highlights and subsumes, turns into endless meaningless repetitions, and places into keen, almost painful focus. I utilize the power of the camera to see and capture light as it appears; both very much of this world and yet, not.

Light, as both grief and its salve, is the emotional and compositional conduit of these works. Like grief, light finds its way into every recess, showing us parts of our lives that we thought were safe from its pain. At the same time, light represents the healing process, the way through which acute pain eventually subsides and transforms itself into a warm memory of loved ones lost.

Dark Light is an evocation of the healing power of light; it documents the healing process by tracing its evolution written across the face of the everyday.

Andrea Rosenthal

Andrea Rosenthal