67/11

SIGNED COPY.

Letting go of one’s remaining parents and of one’s parental home is a formidable task. Suddenly feelings of abandonment may emerge, and childhood memories become conscious again. When combined with making arrangements for the funeral and gazing upon what remains in that home of moments now past, and from the perspective of another country which has become a second home, we are prepared to sense multiple layers of memory and recollections, as well as cultural and personal perspectives in glancing back on so much detail of a shared life.

Jurek Wajdowicz is up to that task and then some. A highly regarded designer and fine-art photographer based in the US, he traveled back to Lodz, Poland, to pay final respects to his mother, and now allows us to participate in that process through his eyes, his mind, and his emotions.

The result is this touching photobook of observations. House number 67/11 – is it all a dream, what of it is still real, and what is there that catches his attention that represents moments of a life that was so shared and special, and how not to lose the memories of it all… Traveling with the photographer through time, we are shown photographs that he took over a period of a few days of the memories in the place that had so much meaning for his mother and himself. A deep-rooted sense of belonging is mixed with feelings of loss and not wanting to let go. The tones of the images are mostly subdued, yet light shines through in many places, through patterned glass and drapery, around furniture. We are able to glean a variety of items that represent his mother’s life – old glasses, books, suitcases, the stove that was the site of many shared meals that were prepared on it, apples on a window sill that were saved and gradually are withering… We also see portraits of son and mother in the shadows.

"Wajdowicz has a great skill for designing his narrative with a creative sensitivity that not only allows him to effectively share his personal journey but also lets us relate it to our own lives. This visual tribute through recollections stands out as an excellent example of how fine art photography and one’s personal journey can be combined and offered to all of us as an appealing shared experience!" —GERHARD CLAUSING, Author, The PhotoBook Journal

"67/11 is a monograph by Jurek Wajdowicz which focuses on a series of photographs he made in his mother’s home in Lodz, Poland, when he returned there for the last time following her death to make the funeral arrangements and say goodbye. 67/11 is an artistic response to a deep sense of personal loss and the painful void it has left behind. It is an emotionally charged work that is at once starkly simple and richly layered, and an expression of sadness and poetry. In his deeply personal book of photographs and writing, 67/11, Wajdowicz explores the universal experience of the loss of a parent and the meaning of home following the death of his beloved mother. His beautiful, dreamlike photographs were taken over several days and nights in his mother’s home in Lodz, Poland as he arranged and waited for her funeral..." —CARY BENBOW, Writer. F-Stop Magazine.