Familia Mia

These are part of a series that I've been working on  for the past 4 to 5 years. They are pictures of my family in Romania extending to some of my family in that states. I've been really doing this mostly for myself, but found something nice and beautiful to explore. These two images are of my Mother in the foreground and my grandmother in the back. They were reliving some old memories, maybe my mothers childhood, maybe some of mine. My grandmother started feeling really shy to be participating in these and used my mother as a shield a few times to stay out of the cameras sight. It was actually her idea for me to start photographing them though. She told me one day that her and my grandfather are getting old and that there is no knowing when or where we can have these experiences together. It was kind of frightening at first to hear that, since it was when I first picked up photography and was already given a task by my grandparents to document their coming close to the end of their lives. My grandmother has actually asked me to take a couple of straight portraits for their funeral, which I have still not been able to get myself to do. But for now I seem to have captured more of a celebration of their old age and connection with my family.