Honorable Mention Artist: Jeremy Sachs-Michaels
Statement:
These photographs were taken the day before my grandfather passed away at 93 years of age. He was born in 1919. As the first in his family to ever graduate from high school, then college, then a masters program, and finally from Columbia University with a doctorate, he quietly and effectively rerouted the roots of our family tree.
The morning before he died he was having trouble using the bathroom, as a result of his breathing medication. Once I had him resettled on his mother’s couch, in his Pennsylvania apartment, he told me, “Never get old. It’s horrible. You can’t use the bathroom. You can’t breathe. You can’t do anything.”
I crouched down next to him and spoke to him of what an American hero he was, fighting in Germany during World War II, leading my family through education, and so on.
He shrugged and replied, “That was your grandmother, Winifred.”
The image titles, 4:18:45pm, 4:21:55pm, 4:20:33pm, 4:23:26pm, and 4:28:40pm, reflect the exact and important moment in time when they were captured.
Bio:
Jeremy was born in New York City, but grew up in a small town named Spencertown. He earned an Associate Degree from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in 2004, and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2007. Jeremy uses his photographic work as a way to rationalize and understand the world around him. He now lives in Brooklyn.