SOPHIE SMITH - GRANDPA RUPERT
My childhood ideas of home and extended family were largely theoretical - far away lands and far away people, names scrawled on Christmas cards and photos in albums, scraps of stories and inherited objects.
As I have grown older, I’ve started gathering these scraps and reshaping them to form a narrative that allows me to understand myself in the context of my ancestors and to find healing, for them and for me.
I went to see a healer and I told her of the traumas I knew all about - the holocaust and the dramas - but instead she pointed to the big gap in my story - Grandfather Rupert, who we don’t talk about. My mother has a little photo of him but she hides it when her mother comes to visit. I can’t help but notice that my mother carries around the hairbrush he left to her in her handbag, one of her most treasured possessions.
The healer gives me a ritual to do and a prayer to say: “Dear Great Grandparents and Grandfather Rupert - Whatever it ALL is that separates you from me - I honour that and I invite a healed, restorative connection.”
She told me to do this and then to wait.
Bio:
Sophie is a lifestyle photographer whose creative journey mirrors her personal evolution. She embarked on a path of introspection and healing while documenting motherhood and the tender moments of her children’s lives which has fueled her fascination with the intimate dynamics between women, children, and nature, particularly the healing properties of water.
INSTAGRAM : @sophiesmithphotography
WEBSITE : https://www.sophiesmithphotography.com/
