‘Left Behind’: A Photo Series by Jennifer Loeber

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Death isn’t an uncommon theme in artwork. This isn’t surprising, since death is something that informs much of our lives. It’s something we all must deal with and cope with — it is something we spend much of our life trying to understand. So it’s no wonder that artists often turn to death as a source of inspiration and healing.

Brooklyn-based photographer Jennifer Loeber has taken her own experience with death — the loss of her mother — and turned it into artwork that is beautiful, raw and extremely touching.

Loeber lost her mother in February of 2013, and her project, “Left Behind,” began to take form as she was looking through photos at the memorial service. The project became even more solidified when Loeber took on the painful task of cleaning out her mother’s closet.

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Despite, or perhaps because of her grief, an idea was born. Loeber began juxtaposing pictures of her late mother’s belongings — taken on the artist’s iPhone — with vintage shots of her mom.

Loeber snapped pictures of all sorts of things that had belonged to her mother: her engagement ring, her blush, a hairbrush, old cassettes, a lighter and more.

Loeber’s father took most of the photos, which were taken between the 1950s and the 1980s. Her mother is caught in candid moments, such as doing her hair or putting on a coat. In some, she is looking at the camera wearing a bathing suit and big sunglasses at the beach. In others, she is standing in a brown business suit with her hand on her hip. Juxtaposed with items from later in her life, the images take on an incredibly intimate and emotional feel.

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In her artist’s statement, Loeber writes, “I found myself deeply overwhelmed by the need to keep even the most mundane things of my mom’s belongings when she died suddenly…Instead of providing comfort and good memories, they became a source of deep sadness and anxiety, and I knew the only way I would be able to move past that was to focus on a way to interact with them cathartically.”

And so her project took on a healing element; it was a way to remember her mother, but also a way to overcome the sadness left behind. “Living with them” (the objects), she says now, “seems like a nice way to keep her spirit around.”

Likewise, the finished project is a tribute to her mother, and, in a way, a tribute to those whom others have lost as well. The images are truly beautiful — certainly an incredible way to reflect on a relationship and a love that lives on long after death.