Roses

Heritage is an important aspect of who I am. I am proud that my name derives from two outstanding women, my great-grandmothers, that I unfortunately, never got a chance to meet. However, I am able to carry on their memory with my name. I like to integrate my heritage into my modern life by incorporating roses whether that be through a necklace, a display of flowers, or even through my photographs. 

In this photo series, My Maternal Roots, I found authentic images of my great-grandmothers. In the first photo, one of my great-grandmothers is sitting next to her daughter who is holding a bundle of white roses at her wedding. In the next photo, my other great-grandmother is holding white roses on her wedding day. Evidently, I share their love of roses. I represented the fact that these women are my “roots†and “stems†by adding roots on top of the photos of one of my great-grandmothers and adding rose stems on top of the photos of my other great-grandma. In the next photograph, I angled my camera behind a rose to capture its back to reflect the idea that my great-grandmothers provided me the backbone many years ago that I am able to stand on today. From my mom’s stories, I learned that they were both honest and kind women which stand as an example of how I should live my life. The next photo is of a rosebud starting to bloom with water droplets. The significance of this photo is to represent that my great-grandmothers’ memories were revitalized when I was born and able to carry on their name into the new generation. Finally, the last photo represents how I live my youthful life, represented by a pink healthy flower, whilst revitalizing their memory, signified by the water droplets, by carrying their name.