Cassandra

It was the beginning of one more day towards the end of September, another anniversary of our move to Vancouver was coming to be that week; and an unusual feeling of missing my native Mexican culture started invading me, without explanation I was feeling homesick for Mexican art; that was the only interpretation I could give myself.

The first phone call of the day turned out to be my sister Kathy from San Diego giving me the devastating news that our half-sister, Cassandra, had died from a recreational drug overdose the previous evening. Emotional devastation took hold, my energy was focused into sadness, frustration and anger. Needless to say my activities of that working day never took place; yet, instinctively, I did not cancel a nude test shoot I had planned for that night with a friend.

I had never thought about playing with different images in one photo; but that evening the desire to vent my feelings through photography were very intense so I let the idea flow as I mechanically started pulling together collected objects in the studio to form a still life: a dried flower was still in the vase that once held water for it, those small roses were hanging in the studio for months, an old door I had brought from Mexico, that piece of barbed wire held my pain, and those quail eggs were left over from a food shoot.

‘Naturaleza muerta’ which means dead life was a more fitting interpretation for a still life at that moment. It came together as my friend arrived for our session, we talked about the events that led up to that moment and, her attitude of sorrow, nude to the passions of the moment, melted effortlessly into the image I dedicate to Cassandra.