Wake

Synopsis · Before the existence of electric lights, photography was know as “heliography” (writing with the sun) and the first camera-less photograms were called sun-prints. Unlike the photography, the photogram does not record the object in a photo-realistic sense, but instead creates a representation of the space surrounding an object. The photogram is a shadow which charts the distance between things. When my father died, there was never a chance to see his body after life had left it. This film was made by placing his ashes directly on 35mm film in a dark room and moving the film a frame at a time. Wake is a dirge in celluloid. It is a celebration of my fathers life, a meditation on his body and a visual record of mourning. – ES