i am fine.

Bayside, Queens; New York - 2012-2013

A small series images from an unfinished document, "I Am Fine" is the beginning of an intimate glimpse into the lives of Max and Hella Vanderpool, Holocaust survivors who met after WWII and rebuilt their lives in Brooklyn. These images deal with ideas of survival, home, trauma, and the prevalence of love amid the shadows of such a dark and arduous past.

Hella did not speak much, so I would often have her write to me. Asking her if she was okay, one day she wrote to me: "I am fine." These images also act así a document of the last year of Hella's life before she passed in 2014. Max and Hella showed me the true meaning of love and companionship in the midst of such a difficult time.

From a wheelchair, Max often said that he hoped he may outlive Hella because he knew that as long as he lived she would be well cared for and remain at home. Max passed three years later.