Artist Statement:

In 1940 when my mother was seven she was orphaned.

First her father died in Poland so they sent her with her mother and sister to Siberia where they then died.

She was alone now so they sent her to an orphanage in Africa where she stayed until she was sixteen.

I asked her about her family but although her memory seemed to be fine she had no memory of them.

I asked her about Africa but the only memory she had of there was that it wasn't cold and she wasn't hungry.

After she died I looked through her photographs to try to rebuild the memories she had lost I noticed that up until her teenage years she looked directly into the camera then she stopped and did not do so again until she left Africa. Even in group photographs where everyone else looked ahead, she did not.

My mother died 12 years ago. I wanted my son to know about his family background which is what drove me to create this series.

It is as true a representation of my mother's lost years as anything could be.