This work came together spontaneously - I use my family albums and stories for the source material for a lot of my projects, and I had been holding on to a family postcard portrait of my paternal great-grandmother, my grandmother and her siblings since my grandmother passed away.

 

The fold creases and worn edges of the postcard showed its age, when you read the inscriptions on the back, the portrait became even more emotionally charged.

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I'm young enough to take peace for granted, and I hadn't ever considered how enormous the loss of life was during WW1.

My French-born paternal great-grandfather was conscripted into the French army during WW1, and stationed near Angers.

 

The photos in this piece which accompanying the postcard were taken during a trip through France in 2012.

In one tiny village called Dompierre-les-Eglises, I took a walk through the local cemetary across from our campsite and was struck by how every grave was for a fallen WW1 soldier.

 

I remembered the postcard and suddenly felt the weight of this history touch me personally.