Traces

Series of 6, fine art print, 114 x 76 cm , 76 x 51 cm, 34 x 23 cm

For the photo series Traces, the leading question was: “What remains when someone disappears?” I found the answer in small intimate traces of life, sensory sensations such as the hand that gave the soap its soft shape, the hair comb where dust, hair and dirt has accumulated. Touches that literally leave traces on things because of the endless repetition. This series was created when I was clearing out my parents’ house and in the last year of my father’s life.

Parool, June 4th 2020, Maarten Moll : (….)  Also striking are the photos in the hallway that are part of the series Traces (2017-2019), taken during the illness process of Van Geffen’s father. We see a comb, a shirt collar, a pillow on which perhaps a head has rested for the last time, a hand passing through the hair. These are moving details that indirectly tell us more about the one who is no longer there. A bar of soap formed by his hands. We often overlook it. Again that layering.

Photos Museum Tot Zover: Gert Jan van Rooij