“Loving What Won’t Last” is a personal project that resulted in a solo exhibition at Eye Lounge (Phoenix, Arizona) in June/July 2019. The photographs explore the concept of Mono No Aware, a Japanese Shinto term that is hard to translate, but contains the understanding that there is joy and love within the sad realization of the transience of life. The title of the exhibition is inspired by the first lines of Mary Oliver’s poem “Snow Geese.”
“Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!
What a task
to ask
of anything, or anyone,
yet it is ours,
and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.”