Phillip Toledano: Days with My Father
I see a lot of great work most days. I see a lot of bad work, too, but I can filter it pretty well. Maybe about five or six times a year I actually see something that moves me, that is deeply personal yet completely open, a shared experience of emotion through art. That is certainly the ultimate goal of any artwork. This morning I came across a photo-essay titled Days with My Father by the photographer Phillip Toledano. The series captures Toledano’s life with his father, who has no short term memory, after Toldeano’s mother died. The series is heartbreaking and hopeful, and brought up a mix of emotions I wasn’t expecting. It’s interesting to see someone else’s perspective on their feelings for their father, and to view my own paternal relationship in that light. Toledano shows his mastery of the photographic art as well with each staggeringly expressive shot. Every portrait captures the sum total of the subject, even though that total is completely different from one shot to the next. At the heart of the series is just the simple act of a son demonstrating his love for his father in the only way that he knows to express such powerful emotions. You can almost stand at the edge of the limitless expanse that is that love and peer over. Almost. Some things are just too personal. Now I’ve gotta go call my dad.
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