Mortality, Memory and the Photograph
With the recent passing of our most beloved dog Tarquin, I have realised the importance of the photograph in preserving memory.
Whilst struggling to come to terms with mortality, the mind wanders across all kind of options. Most of these seem that they may ease our own grief slightly, but are not what is right. It would be selfish to prolong the animal’s suffering, and it would be unjustifiable to spend money one does not have on crematory novelties.
We had four weeks between Tarquin’s diagnosis and his departure. In this time I took many photographs of him, but it wasn’t until I instructed my mother to take this photograph of us together that I realized how it all worked. To truly preserve the memory of your time together, you must be photographed together.
Once captured, that moment exists eternally. While Tarquin may be gone, there we are, together. On the bathroom floor, as we often were. His expression relaxed and happy. I cherish this above all of the other images I have taken of him. Whilst I have enough pictures to remember what he looks like, this is the image that means that I will always feel that connection to him. Which, in the end, is what the heart yearns for the most when they’re gone.
This is my bid to encourage others to document the little things. We need to let our friends go when it is their time, comforted by the knowledge that our connection will never fade, but exist unmarred by time; as clear and as real as when they were still here with us. That is the power of the photograph.
