Grady Thomas

Once in a lullaby

ARTIST STATEMENT

These photographs were made during the last weeks of my maternal grandparents’ lives. I reflexively brought my camera as I worked with family and a hospice team to manage their care. They were married for sixty-five years and died one month and one week apart. I was drawn to moments of visible intimacy – specifically instances of touch between family members. My photography practice is focused on relationships, in this case the bond between blood relatives in an intense and intimate space on the threshold of life. The title, Once in a lullaby, comes from the lyrics to the Arlen/Harburg song “Over the Rainbow”. Shortly before he died, my grandfather (a staunch atheist as far as I knew) asked me if I thought he would see his father in heaven, and I began to associate that question with the song’s description of a distant, idyllic place.

ARTIST BIO

Over the past six years, Grady Thomas has honed a practice of documenting encounters with subjects human and otherwise through image-making, focusing on the craft of analog photography and the process of darkroom work. A graduate of Hampshire College, Grady studied under seasoned photographer and printer Kane Stewart, fusing a scholarly background in art history and philosophy with technical acumen. During this time their interest in traditional photographic methods began to flourish, particularly the tactile and contemplative practice of darkroom printing, where each print is the product of sustained focus and reflection. The most recent development in their photography practice is a class on photographing people taught by JP-based photographer Robin Radin.