Wound and Fountain by Tom Griggs

Issue 44

These images explore the evolution of my relationship with my wife Ana through difficult years of spatial separation that raised in both of us questions of timing and fidelity, happiness and sacrifice.

We chose to complete our graduate school degrees at separate schools half a continent apart. The result was three years of hotels and airports, ecstatic reunions and long periods of trying to maintain the thread of our relationship through the computer and the promise of a next visit.

Looking back, I see that the camera became a way for me to navigate these years by giving this disorienting experience a narrative and by giving voice to the emotional states of that time.

These photographs – all candid and made between 2007 and 2011 – are specific to our relationship, but I believe that they also reflect a broader shared experience of contemporary life. We are, as a society, more frequently spending time apart from those we love for extended periods in order to pursue our best opportunities for work and education. Those decisions have consequences for every relationship.

This project ended when I graduated from school and moved to where Ana was completing her doctorate degree. When she finished, we married.

Tom Griggs is a Medellín, Colombia based photographer and editor of the website, fototazo
To view more of Tom's work, please visit his website.