Family Loss

Kristen Firth

Australian National University

This series of photographic portraits looks at family loss, and the way in which family transcends death. It follows three young people of generation Y who have lost loved ones from different relationships: sister, mother, grandparents. Bec who lost her little sister Grace to a battle with childhood cancer after watching her decline for three years. Ellen who as a teen lost her mother Melinda to cancer, and was left to grow into womanhood without her. And Dan, who as the sixteenth grandchild never got the opportunity to develop a meaningful relationship with his grandparents Ennis and John before they passed of old age. Each image captures the people left behind in a quiet moment spent with the grave of their loved one.