Eroded, Holly

Eroded.
Holly S.
Photograph.

:::

about the piece.

I took this photo during the summer following the loss of my daughter. This scene was very striking to me and it was one of the first times I felt such a strong connection between my grief and nature. The tree's roots were fighting to stay beneath the ground, but if you look closely, you will notice a small sapling growing within the tangled mess. It was a symbol of hope for me, and gave me some reassurance that despite the fact that my once firmly planted roots were eroded from the unrelenting waves of grief washing over me, there was something yet to come that would be worth living for. I did not know it at the time, but I was pregnant again. --Holly S.

about the artist.
Holly is a mother to four. Her third child, a daughter, was diagnosed with a fatal condition on the day of her birth. She lived for fifteen days, but not a moment goes by that she isn't thought of by her mom. Soon after the loss of her daughter, Holly began writing and developed an urge to capture images that would make her grief more tangible. "What motivates me is the desire to freeze these moments in time and allow others a brief glimpse of the world through the eyes of a grief-stricken parent. Losing my daughter has changed the way I see everything." Holly writes at Momentum.