Chapter IV: The Book

Life determined the end of the photographic part of this project, but I wasn’t done telling the story. I discovered diary entries, cards, old family photos, and the odds and ends of everyday life. It was highly therapeutic for me since it enabled me to celebrate their lives and not just properly mark their deaths.

I wanted to memorialize my parents’ story in some way – to give it the gravitas and lasting legacy that I felt it deserved, and to share it with the world, because I figured that if diving into the full lives of my parents while I documented their deaths helped me process my grief, it just might help someone else. So, I went about creating a scrap book that could contain all of the wonder and joy and love they shared to the very end.

While ultimately published by German art book publisher Hatje Cantz, the book came to life thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $65,000 from 740 people who believed in what this book could be. The book became a traveling exhibition and took on a life of its own. It was about starting a larger conversation, and reframing the narrative around illness and death to try and help others in all stages of the process.

The Family Imprint is currently available internationally wherever books are sold.

Signed copies are available at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY.