grief
A PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLABORATION BY PAM AND COLIN VICKERY
In 1993, Pam Vickery suffered a triple blow - her grandson was stillborn, her mother passed away after a series of heart attacks, and she discovered that she was adopted.
For Pam, then 53, it was an emotionally devastating time. In the space of twelve months the life of this suburban grandmother had been torn apart and she was forced to question her faith, her beliefs, her very identity.
Pam turned to her husband, photographer Colin Vickery, to help deal with her trauma. Together they decided to create a photographic series that would help express the anger, hurt and fear Pam felt.
The result is GRIEF , a series of 30 black and white images that follow Pam's emotional journey over the next year.
GRIEF takes viewers on a haunting journey through one person's inner turmoil. It is a series that contemplates the ravages of the human body, the inadequacies of medical science, the roles of religion and faith and the question of identity.
Pam called on memories from her past to create the photographs. She dressed in her mother's and father's clothing and used items from their lives - tools, illustrations from medical books, love letters, ornaments - as well as found objects including wreaths, wire, plants and weeds.
The locations for the shots include abandoned suburban family homes as well as forested areas around the country town where her grandson would have been raised.
When the series was finished, Pam decided the images were too personal to exhibit. Now she is ready to show them publicly.
"Producing these images was therapy for me," she says. "They gave me the strength to get on with my life. I hope people who have gone through the grieving process will be able to relate to them."