Ephemeral Memorials

After taking many photos in a cemetery of decaying, fake flowers juxtaposed against monuments, I began to question myself. I don’t believe in cemeteries and had found myself repulsed but drawn to this barren place. In my studio, printed on transparent film and suspended away from the wall, the lighting causes overlapping shadows and the images and their shadows move with the air. They have been transformed into something ephemeral, affecting me in a way that I don't fully understand. Why do people remember and then forget their loved ones in cemeteries? Why bring fake flowers as a tribute? I don’t have answers, but there’s something that moves me in these fading, neglected memorials.

"Vivian Pratt’s wonderfully translucent photographs of fake flowers at cemeteries"
- Geoff Edgers, The Boston Globe