When a child is born, the umbilical cord is cut, separating the baby from its mother.
When a child starts school, she is separated from her family.
When two parents’ divorce, a family becomes fragmented.
It was while walking along a beach early one morning last summer and reflecting on where my practice was heading in terms of my theme of adoption that I came across things lying on the sand. It appeared that the owners of the objects had been careless when packing up their belongings and leaving the beach at the end of a day at the seaside.
I began to photograph them and realised all the items I was recording weren’t broken, they were still functional. Some of the items looked nearly new or were part of a set and I began to ask myself questions. At what point did the owners miss the objects? Did they come back and search for the lost item? Why didn’t they check more thoroughly? Were the objects hidden in the sand, so they got forgotten…or were they deliberately left behind?
I was intrigued by these things and the questions they had raised in my mind so I kept returning to the beach at the same time for the remaining days I was there to see what else had been left behind recording each item on my camera.
I compared all the things I came across with the separation of a mother and baby at a point when the child is handed over for adoption and the idea that the questions I asked about the objects were similar to the ones adoptees ask when they become aware that they are adopted.
I have compiled most of the images into this small album.
