Rocio De Alba

This project centers around the absence of my father. He died a few year ago as a result of alcoholism. We had been estranged for ten years so my mourning was superficial. During the pandemic, however, I spent those quarantined days organizing family photos. To my dismay, I discovered countless photographs of my father. These images catapulted me into a pivotal cluster of emotions that released the anger, resentment, and melancholy I avoided since he passed. The images comforted me and metaphorically "held me," as I mourned during a time COVID would not allow the nation to hold one another.

My father was a complicated man with massive artistic talent, but all I remembered was the abuse my family suffered. So I used this series to radically shift that narrative of him. To accomplish this, I used Photoshop to superimpose my father and me together in emotional poses where I hold him gently, forgive him and rebuild my negative perception of him into angelic status. The processes are cathartic and portray my father as my hero, ally and friend.