Sugar
birgit is a dreamy dreamgirl
six years old always happy
gets up in the morning does her hair
diabetes the number one kind
playing with friends
riding the bike
four insuline injections
each and every day
barbie dolls and trampolines
beaches, oceans and corn flakes
seven daily blood checks
baby-G with six alarms
intimate, close
always happy
sometimes pain
she’s an angel.
“Sugar” is a story about Birgit, a six year old sweet kiddo. She’s been diagnosed with diabetes about a year ago. Incurable. This story is about how, through her, I myself am being confronted with the fact that her illness is much more of an issue to me than it is to her. She taught me a lesson there… The things that are on top of a kid’s list, should in fact be on top of anyone’s list:
Life is about playing with friends and family and having fun as much as you possibly can.
These intimate, close images, are freeze-frames out of her daily life. Random. Lots of different moments. Almost no visual context. Bare essentials. More about feeling the moment than looking at the moment.
There is no beginning and no end. A collection without order. You will recognise inside, outside, darkness, light, a bike, a bed or even a beach. But they are all irrelevant…
Just try to hear the laughter, hear the playing… Remember your own childhood… Feel like you’re there up close with her, her brother and her sister. Sometimes she will notice you and say hi. Sometimes she will play and laugh with you until her stomach aches. Sometimes you feel like you need to let her be, dreaming.
She stares into the sea.
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Sugar has been published on Burn Magazine, Slideluck Potshow DC III 2009, and has been exhibited in the Milan Photo Festival VIII 2009. More info here…
Steven Caddy
September 18, 2009 at 13:27 //
Anton,
So happy to have discovered you via burn!
What a touching project. I’ve had a daughter for almost two years now, and it’s taught me so much. A deeper lesson that’s beginning to come to the surface now is just how short these years are going to be – how soon she’ll be in Birgit’s world, and then beyond.
I particularly love the way your focus brings out the environment. Foam on the water, the wooden floor, stray hair, the fabric of clothes. Because they’re the physical context for all these moments – the things that laughter echoes off of and that somehow stick in your childhood mind when you recall in later years…
anton
September 18, 2009 at 22:03 //
hey steven…
thank you for your kind words… and yes, these images are for the most part like i remember my own childhood: visual fragments, little focus, more a palette of colors, smells and sounds than actual context…
good luck with your daughter…
cheers,