Seth
Cook

As Big As The Sky

When my brother and I were young, our mother would say she loved us "bunches and bunches, as big as the sky." Growing up, I never put thought into this phrase, nor would I realize how much of an impact it would have on me until cancer spread through her body. A week before she went into surgery, she said she had something for me in her closet - a camera. She had carried this camera with her since she was young, and despite us being close, she never told me about this part of her life. Now that she was leaving my family, that opportunity to learn about our shared passion was gone, with traces only visible within her photos. Upon receiving her camera, I began navigating a stream of consciousness around the places, people, and emotions surrounding me following her death while reflecting on the spiritual absence present in my family. To hold onto her memory, I photographed my family as she would: someone with a love that could only be described "as big as the sky."