There is something more significant about this set of photographs that goes way beyond what the objects represent. A Rolleiflex camera, hydrangea's in a vase, a poncho, a hat, some letterpress blocks, and eight sets of glasses. They are the reminders of love and loss.
On March 25th, 2008 Lisa passed away. Lisa was a photographer and the wife of
Ron Cowie. As Ron explained, "Lisa had the flu and went into the hospital a few days later when her doctor said that she had Pneumonia. In the hospital she went into septic shock, went into a coma and within 24 hours she was gone." Prior to this she was a healthy wife and mother––an unexpected loss for all that knew her.
These were Lisa's objects. Ron created
Inventory a series of her personal objects in 2009 as a way to honor her life. As he told me recently, "this wasn't about grief
: it was about a celebration of life and love."
"You do what you do, right? You make pictures. It was a perfect way that I could honor the memory of Lisa––the person who taught me how to love––the mother of my daughter."

One day, after going through his master closet, Ron realized that he needed to do something with her stuff: he needed to make room. "I basically reached out to Lisa and asked her permission, and the answer that I got back was to photograph her stuff in the most labor-intensive way."
"Using the wet plate process then printing them in platinum forced me to slow down and contemplate every single piece. Like her poncho for instance––she would wear it all the time when she was pregnant. These objects had life-force in them."
In preparing this post, I read Ron's original artist statement about this series. He wrote that by looking at these objects..."it reminds me that beauty was in reach."
Reminders will always be there. Comfort is having your loved ones close by––if not them, than an object that was theirs that you can mentally project a sense of presence through can sometimes act as your sanctuary of serenity.
Ron Cowie's images are on view through April 1, 2013 in the
Panopticon Gallery exhibition,
The Things That Seem and Those That Are: Reshaping Photography through Alternative Processes.