By the end, everything goes

This is an exhibition that ends with nothing on the walls.

I’m a photographer, life organiser and death doula companion, my days are spent helping people decide what to keep and what to let go of.

At the centre of this exhibition are some photographs I’ve kept since my mother died; her house, her garden, the room she died in, the last pictures I took of her. I’ve held them for years without knowing why. They’re not what I’d normally show, either: usually I put out carefully chosen work, and these are the opposite. They’re the duplicates, the unpolished ones and how I captured moments in private. Now, with this year’s theme, Feedback Loop, I’m ready to let them go along with older work; as a queer person recognising holding onto selves I’ve outgrown. Releasing them honours them too.

The loop works with other people’s involvement; it’s a community practice. Anyone can bring their old photographs; a bag of prints, or thousands on their phone. In the corner, a shredder.

Then, over a cup of tea at the Ledward Centre, you can talk about the memory or not, then choose: pin it up, or shred it there and then.

Deleting on your own is hard; I hold the space while you do it.

People let go of all sorts: old relationships, old selves, old lives; who they used to be. Letting go turns out to be part of choosing what to keep.